An Inconvenient Husband 2
by AngeloftheMorning1978
Summary: Ok, since fan fiction has been acting like a little bitch, I can only post on new stories. I don't like to keep my readers waiting, so I'll do what it takes to post. A&E and A&A in the following chapters. Get it together fan fic. Net
1. Chapter 1

4.

~ He was kissing her feet and she was trying not to laugh. His lips pressing into the curve of her foot as she tried not kick away from him.  
"Ticklish?" Eames asked as he kissed her toes and she giggled.  
"I never thought I was." Ariadne told him as she felt as giddy as she did the first few nights she was married to Arthur.

That lovely euphoric feeling of a new and promising infatuation that wanted so desperately to turn into love.

It was early morning and Eames had built a cozy fire to chase away the encroaching winter chill that always haunted Blue Rivers. The couple, after their furious lovemaking, had settled on the rug to enjoy the warmth of the fire.

Eames had refused to let Ariadne re-dress or even wrap a sheet around herself. Insisting she was at her most beautiful when she wore nothing.

Her new lover had likewise remained unclothed as they enjoyed the fire.

"Where did you learn to do that?" she asked him as his thumb rolled over the arch of her foot again.

"Do what?" he asked with a sinister little smile.

"You know what." she scolded and lightly hit him. Her cheeks flushed red at being too lady like to say it. "When you had your... your mouth... down... down_ there_." she said and blushed harder.

Eames only gave her a little smirk.

"It's an ancient Indian sex book call the Kamasutra. I'll lend it to you. It's full of the numerous and interesting ways to make love." he said.

"There's more then one?" she asked in disbelief and Eames started to laugh.

He laughed a laughed and seemed unable to stop as she told him to quit teasing her.  
"I haven't been able to write since before I left for the war." Eames sighed. "I think I can do it now that we're together. The words want to come to me again."

"You haven't written at all? You used to write every day." Ariadne told him as her long dark hair manged to cover her breasts and nothing more. She felt like Lady Godiva, riding her horse naked through the streets with only her hair to cover herself. Likewise, she kept her hair covering her breasts as best she could. Or, as much as Eames would allow.

Her new lover had changed from a carelessly charming man to a demanding creature who refused to be parted from the things he wanted most.

"I couldn't make the words come. My stories were falling flat." he told her sadly. "I was too depressed to write."

"Sadness brings out the best in writers." she told him as he was kissing the arch in her foot again.  
"Not in me. I would try to write about how sad I was, it just made things worse." he said.

"So what do you want to write about?" she asked.  
"I was thinking a love story. About a knight who falls in love with another man's wife. The king's wife no less. He only pretends to serve the king so he can protect the queen and grow closer to her." he said.

She gave him a laugh.

"You're talking about Lancelot and Guinevere." she told him.

"No, it's different." Eames promised.

"How so?" she teased.  
"It just will be." he assured her.  
"Is it about you and me?" she asked.

Eames said nothing.  
"Because I was another man's wife. I was Arthur's wife. He was like a king. Is my Arthur to be your king Arthur?" she prompted.  
Eames said nothing.  
"Because you know, if Arthur hadn't died on the _Empress_, I wouldn't be here with you. You couldn't have seduced me like you've done. I wouldn't have been with you, no matter what." she assured him.

Eames said nothing. His hands playing with her feet.  
"I loved Arthur." she whispered.

Eames gave her an odd look then. One that she wasn't used to seeing on him. A look of menacing hatred that was almost dangerous.

"I know that." he whispered.

She wanted to say something else. Assure him she did love him, but the words didn't come.

"So what have you been writing about?" he asked. Changing the subject so they could avoid a fight.

"I haven't. Gave it up." she told him flatly.

"What?" he laughed.

She let out a long sigh.  
"I haven't been published since Arthur died, Eames." she admitted.

"Yeah, but you've been writing. I've seen you."

She shook her head.  
"No, it's rubbish. All of it." she said sadly. "I've been too busy with Olivia and Harold, my job, the war, the house. Not to mention your mother and Lady Percy."

"We need to start writing again. We can't used our conservatory, we can lock ourselves in here and write. We'll create masterpieces of literature while we make love all day." he promised.

She rolled her eyes.

"Eames, what about the kids? What about your mother and Fredrick?" she said as she felt that thorny pin prick of guilt start to grow.

"Ariadne, I've waited for you long enough." Eames said. "I don't know what more I have to do to prove to you I love you."

"I... I know you..." she stammered.  
"Fredrick will be gone, and I want to leave this house forever. We can go where we want, be who we want." he promised.

"What about your mother? What about Lady Percy? The children? How would they live with us being creative geniuses?" she questioned.

The practicality of Eames' plan was starting to crack. His dreams were lovely and she yearned for them the be true. But life had already taught her ugly lessons. Reality wasn't picture perfect. Eames wanted a cozy cottage by the sea where they could be together with no cares or allowances for the future.

Eames was so unlike Arthur. Her poor late husband would have ensured they had a proper home, financial backing and a plan. Arthur was the unimaginative planner. Eames was the careless free spirit.

"I need to get dressed. It's almost time to get the kids up and I need to give Fredrick his breakfast." she said as she slipped away from Eames.  
"Ariadne, it's still early." he insisted as she went to her wardrobe and started to get dressed.  
"I have things to do today." she said absentmindedly.

_~ Cobb Residence ~_

_~ New York City ~_

~ Cobb looked over the three telegrams he received that morning.  
"I'm becoming popular." he muttered as Arthur scowled over the business section.

He was glad his friend had returned to normal in the year since he had resurfaced. It had been a hard road. His former friend had been traumatized by the ship sinking from under him.

His separation from Ariadne and Olivia had seemed to hurt him even more.

Cobb had tried in vain to coax Arthur to contact his now ex wife. She thought he was dead and didn't know he had divorced her so she could marry Fredrick.

Cobb had also tried to get Ariadne to come to New York and 'accidentally' run into Arthur. Neither one seemed to take the bait.

Arthur need his wife, Cobb decided. He had reverted to the cold heartless business owner he was before he married his convenient wife.

Ariadne had softened Arthur somehow. She had been very good for him and transformed him into a man that was happier and more content.

Since the Empress sank and Arthur had come to live with Cobb and Mal, he had become colder and more distant. Cobb was sure if Ariadne would only come back into his life again, everything that was wrong with Arthur, would be restored.

"These rioting over factory conditions." Arthur muttered as he red over his paper instead of eating.

"Thought you were making better working conditions." Cobb said as he read a telegram from his uncle.

"It's too expensive and with the war in Europe, there is too much money to be made." Arthur said.  
"Yes, but 16 hour days? No time off?" Cobb questioned. "It's like forced labor in some places."

When Arthur re-assumed control of his factories, all of the high minded ideals of social change and workers rights went away.

Arthur had instead increased working hours and started to pay his workers less money. In the past year, there were three riots that broke out because of the conditions.

"I'm not going to engage in talk about how I run my factories, Cobb. I don't force people to work for me. I pay them a livable wage and I have plenty of people who are willing to do the work." Arthur grumbled as he ignored his food and drink only black coffee.

Cobb bit his tongue and glared at his friend.

If Ariadne were here, she would have scolded him. She would have given him a speech about human rights and how he was employing immigrants who didn't know there were laws against such places and working conditions.

Arthur would listen, become annoyed and they would agree to disagree. Then, Arthur would change to make her happy. He would always give into her to make her happy. He would grumble and call her _madam_ for a few days, but then he would be content if the woman he loved was pleased with him.

Arthur was a better person because of her and Cobb was intent on bringing them together again.

He gave his friend a cold look before opening the last telegram.

He almost exclaimed at it coming over from England, when he had to bite his lip.

**Cobb.**

**Fredrick Hays passed away from his war related injuries this morning.**

**The children and I will be leaving England the first of December. **

**We expect to arrive in New York on December 8th. **

**Hope to see you and Mal soon. **

**We plan to live in New York indefinitely.**

**Regards, **

**Mrs. Ariadne Bradford- Hays. **

Cobb looked up at Arthur, his heart beating a little faster.

"What is it?" Arthur asked as he finished his paper and glared at his friend.

"Nothing." Cobb said and stuffed Ariadne's telegram in his pocket.

**sorry this took so long to post up. is acting up.**


	2. Chapter 2

_~ Part VIII ~_

_~ The Hardest Part ~_

1.

~ Fredrick died peacefully in his sleep one night not long after Eames' returned home. Maggie had found him in his sick bed that morning while the rest of the house was waking up. His skin pale and gray; his body still and his blind eyes now at peace.

His breathing had been terrible for the past few days and nothing could be done for him. He had been in horrible pain as his legs and arms swelled once more as he kept coughing up blood.

He had cried and complained for days. Begging Ariadne to look after Harold with his last breath. She dutifully promised to take care of the little boy, leaving her dying husband when she could no longer stand to see him this way. She would go to Eames, her lover chasing away all her terrors and guilt she felt for being with him.

Collectively, she and Eames had started to write again. But it wasn't the same. Eames' words lacked power and focus, and Ariadne couldn't seem to find a purpose to her stories. She was no longer interested in the hobby of writing.

When Maggie reported that Fredrick had died, Ariadne sat by his bedside. Fredrick's lifeless body awaiting the undertaker to collect him.

"Maggie?" she called to the pretty red haired maid.

"Yes?" Maggie said promptly.

Ariadne stood and handed a sealed envelope to her.

"I want you to deliver this telegram application to the phone hub and have it sent to Mr. Cobb in New York.

"Cobb?" Maggie questioned. "Lord Bradford's man?"

"Yes." Ariadne whispered.

Almost immediately, she had Maura pack her trunk for herself and the children.

"You're going back to America, Missus?" Maura questioned as her mistress made her pack in secret.

"No, Maura. _We're_ going to America. You don't think I would leave you here in Blue Rivers alone? I need you too much. Mr. Cobb has kept asking me to come and see him and I think the time has come for Olivia to meet her grandparents." Ariadne told her.

"Will Mr. Eames be going with us?" Maura asked.

Ariadne felt her hands tighten on the leather strap to her steamer trunk. It was the same trunk she had traveled with on Mauritania with Arthur. The one he had riffled through that first night when she didn't have anything decent to wear.

"No, Maura. Mr. Eames will not be told about our plans to leave. We'll be taking the car directly from the church yard to the ship." Ariadne said.

~ Booking passage was easier said than done. The war was still on and Olivia and Harold were not Americans which made the process a little more complicated. Cobb had to wire paper work to the home office to have passports for her, the children and Maura. He even sent a note asking her to stay with him and Mal when she got there.

She would be leaving for America as soon as Fredrick was in the ground.

~ Harold took Fredrick's death hard. Ariadne told him about how his father was a hero and how he was with his real mother now.

The little boy sat in his step mother's lap as she ran her hands through his hair.  
"So where will I go?" he asked as he finally calmed down after his crying fit.

"You'll stay with me, silly." Ariadne teased. "You'll be the man of the house. You have a lot of responsibilities to. You have to make certain Olivia stays out of trouble, and you have to make sure to put your jacket away like I taught you. You have to practice good table manners and set a good example." she told him.

Since Phillipa had gone away to school, and James started hanging around the older boys from the village, Harold was lonely with only Olivia for company. His younger step sister wanted little to do with him and preferred her own company.

"I can stay with you?" Harold asked as Ariadne cleaned his face with her handkerchief.

"I need you." Ariadne said as she gave him a hug and helped him dress in his mourning clothes.

~ Eames had stayed away after Fredrick died. He seemed to sense his presence was an intrusion and stayed in his own rooms until the day of the funereal. Lady Percy and Juniper, however, were front and center Preparing for the meal service at the wake, and writing all the necessary letters to friends and family.

"Of course you're too prostrate with grief to be trouble with this." Juniper said when Ariadne expressed displeasure at another woman writing about her husband's death to his friend and family.

"Juniper, I am perfectly capable of doing the necessary correspondence." Ariadne fumed.

"I've already started them. Why don't you go find Charles? I'm sure my son would be of great comfort to you. The both of you must have loads of plans to make now." she said.

Ariadne wanted to slap Juniper just then. But she went to her rooms and helped Maura with the packing. The sooner they were gone from this house, the better.

~ Fredrick's funeral was short, simple and populated mostly by the few friends and family he had in London. Ariadne buried him next to his beloved Amelia in the little church yard where Arthur's grave marker was placed.

People kept trying to talk to her about how grief stricken she must be. To lose two beloved husbands in just two years. It was more than should be allowed. Fredrick's bubbly Aunt and her neighbors wept openly. Olivia was fussy and Harold rested his head on Ariadne's lap during the service as Ariadne had to once more wear her hated widow's veil.

After he was properly buried, Juniper invited the mourners to Blue Rivers for lunch and there was a hasty exodus to the large estate house.

"Ariadne?" Eames whispered as the mourners all took their own cars and buggies to the house. "Are you coming?"  
"Yes, I need a little while. I wanted to put flowers on Arthur's grave." she told him as Olivia and Harold chased each other in the graveyard. Careless of the sacred ground as the were delighted to be dressed in their best clothes and outside.

"I'll stay with you." he whispered, taking her hand.  
"No." she said sharply. "No, I'll be alright. Maura will stay with me."

"I can take the kids back. They've had a long day." Eames said.

"I'll drive us all back when we're ready, Eames." Ariadne told him curtly.

Her new lover nodded and left her in peace.

Ariadne looked over Fredrick's grave for a long time. She was glad he was gone. He suffered so much. She was thankful she could bury him next to his first wife. His real wife. She was never his wife. Not in any sense of the word was she his wife.  
"Fredrick, I'll promise. I'll look after Harold." she whispered.

His grave was silent. There was nothing left to say.

She wandered over to the prestigious Bradford section of the cemetery. Here, all the Bradfords were laid to rest. Lady Percy's parents, brothers, nieces and nephews. Phillipa's mother was here and there were markers for her father and brother who died on _Titanic_. Arthur's grave marker was here as well. No body was delivered to them. Ariadne had a fashionable head stone, full of ivy engravings around his name shipped in.  
"Olivia, come here." Ariadne ordered as Harold chased his giggling little sister some more.

Olivia came to rest on her mother lap as Ariadne brushed the tears away from her face.

"Children,' she said. Clearing her throat. "We're not going back to the house. We're going to take a car trip to London and then a ship to America."  
"When will we come back?" Harold asked as she spotted Maura in Arthur's car. Their belongings carefully and strategically packed away so no one would see.

"Not for a very long time." Ariadne said. "So, we need to say goodbye. Harold, you said goodbye to your mommy and daddy today, but Olivia, I want you to say goodbye to your daddy."

The little girl looked doubtful.

"Your daddy loved you very much and we won't be back for a long time." Ariadne whispered to her daughter.

Olivia shook her head and buried her face in her mother's chest.

"Missus, if you mean to be leaving, we best do it now. Before Mr. Eames comes back. He's like a blood hound for you." Maura said.

Ariadne nodded and picked up her little girl who was getting too heavy for her.

"Alright, children." she sighed. "It's time to go."

She gave her convenient husband's head stone one last look and whispered.  
"Goodbye, Arthur."


	3. Chapter 3

2.

~ Ariadne fully expected Eames to chase her down and pull her kicking and screaming back to Blue Rivers. But she and Maura managed their escape to London before anyone noticed they were even gone.

They arrived at a second class hotel before nightfall and, in the morning, and were boarded on the war relief vessel that was allowed to transfer passengers, but mainly was used for war work.  
"Big ship!" Harold exclaimed as they walked the deck with the crowds of other passengers.

"Missus, are you sure you want to leave without notice?" Maura asked as the children were delighted with the change of scenery. "Mr. Eames will be very upset."

"I hope he is, Maura." Ariadne scolded. "Eames left us all the time and no one said a word. Why can't I?"

~ It wasn't an easy voyage. It lasted several days and wasn't as luxurious as the _Mauritania_ had been. The four of them were regulated to second class rooms and spartan eating halls. The other passengers were rough people and Ariadne wasn't used to the vulgarity or their common ways. She enjoyed defending the poor, the sick and the destitute, but to be in their company made her realize just how sheltered she had always been.

Arthur had always kept her in an overly indulged lifestyle. It was easy to talk about the suffering of others when she didn't have to see it or smell it in the close quarters and shared bathrooms.

Olivia and Harold became sea sick and Maura and Ariadne had the job of caring for two angry young children who didn't enjoy the big ship as much anymore. They couldn't play outside and there were no other children to be found. The sudden and traumatic parting from the only home they knew was exciting at first, but when they realized they were not going back to Blue Rivers, they soon became restless and irritable.

'_I'll make it up to them._' Ariadne promised herself as she tucked her little girl in. '_I'll give them both a real home and all of us will be happy._'

Her plans for America were simple: she would buy a house and raise these children on her own. She had money from Fredrick's estate, as well as the generous monthly allowance from Arthur's estate. She could more then afford to buy a modest home and keep Maura on as a housekeeper. Marriage had been profitable to her and she didn't need a husband now. She didn't need to marry someone to save herself.

She would no longer be a convenient wife.

"Good night, Olivia." Ariadne said and kissed her daughter.

"Daddy!" Olivia shirked and held out her arms. She scowled at her mother as if she had committed a great sin.

"Olivia..." Ariadne let out a sigh.

"Daddy." Olivia cried again as if asking for a favorite toy.

Ariadne rolled her eyes and riffled through her traveling trunk.

Arthur's handsome picture was carefully protected in the wrap that he had given Ariadne their first night on _Mauritania_.

She looked as his handsome face, his well tailored suit she had laid out for him that day. She had always laid out his clothes for him, and missed the job more then anything else.

She had taken this photograph herself. Of her Convenient husband in his library at Blue Rivers. He was sitting at his desk. His chin in his hand and smirking at her as she insisted on taking the picture.

_~ "You're not better than Mr. Eames, Madam." he said as she clicked the shutter and captured his image. "With all your picture taking."_

"_I want to remember you while you're still young and handsome." she teased as the new baby, Olivia, slept peacefully in the bassinet._

"_I'll be young and handsome a bit longer." he said and tried to go back to his work._

"_I doubt it, dear." she told him, and lazily sat in his lap. Interrupting his writing the way a pretentious house cat would. "Not with the way you stress over things." _

"_It won't age me overnight, madam." he said darkly. _

_ But a faint hint of a smile flashing on his face.  
"I wouldn't say that." she said looking over his head as he wrapped his arms around her waist. "You're starting to get a few gray hairs already."_

"_I am not!" Arthur laughed.  
"Starting to go a little bald to." she added thoughtfully. _

"_No it's not." he said sternly as his hand wandered up to his scalp and gently smoothed out his slicked back hair. _

_ Ariadne tried not to giggle as she cuddled into his chest. _

"_So, Lord Bradford, do you have plans tonight?" she whispered. _

_ Her face flushed red at the implication. _

_ Arthur pretended to look over his schedule as he kept her slight body balanced on his lap. _

"_Let's see, madam. I'm to meet with my mistress later this week, looks like I'm booked full." he perpetrated deep concentration and she fought the urge to kiss him. _

"_I suppose I could stop by your rooms briefly tonight. I can't promise to stay long." he told her as she stopped resisting and kissed his lips passionately.  
"Arthur, I love you." she whispered as he was kissing her back so perfectly, their lips barely separated for breath. _

"_I love you to." he whispered. "Don't worry, darling, we'll have our baby. I promise." he said._

~ Ariadne blinked and the memory faded away. It came into her mind like smoke and enveloped her. Then it was gone like someone had doused her with cold water.

"Mommy, you're crying." Olivia said sadly.

"It's nothing, dearest." Ariadne sighed. "Here, give daddy a kiss goodnight."

The little girl, Arthur's daughter since the day she was born, smiled and kissed his framed picture.  
"I love you, Daddy." Olivia said and pointed to the little shelf in beside her bed.

"Put Daddy there!" she ordered and Ariadne place Arthur's large picture beside his daughter's bed so he could watch her sleeping.

"Good night, Olivia." Ariadne whispered and kissed her precious child once more.

~ "Maura, will you look at this!" Ariadne exclaimed one morning a day before they would arrive in New York. She was reading over the newspapers from America and couldn't believe it. News of rioting and worker abuse in Arthur's factories.

"What does it mean, Missus?" Maura asked.  
"It means, whom ever is running my late husbands factories, is doing a poor job." Ariadne fumed as Maura brought her tea. "I'll have to speak with Mr. Cobb as soon as we land in New York. Arthur would never have allowed this to happen to his empire."

_~ New York ~_

~ Cobb was waiting for the trans Atlantic steamer to come into port. He couldn't wait to see Ariadne again. Arthur had no idea his wife would be coming home and Cobb was looking forward to have them 'accidentally' meet at his house for dinner.

He watched as two women left the passenger hold with two children. Ariadne was still dressed in slacks, her ladies maid, Maura, in the sensible black dress of service.

"Cobb." Ariadne sighed as she gave her old friend a hug. "It's so good to be back home." she whispered.

"Glad to see you to." Cobb said back as he tried to hold Olivia and the toddler cried and pulled hard on her mother's hand.

"Olivia and Harold had a rough voyage." Ariadne explained. "I was hoping to put them both down for a nap soon."

"Of course." Cobb said and took them to his car.

~ "I see you've bought one of Mr. Ford's cars as well." Ariadne said as he drove them past the docks and towards his home upstate.

Cobb bit his lip to keep from talking. Arthur had given him and Mal this car after they had taken him in for several months to recover after it was found out he was still alive.  
"Arthur would have loved this car." Ariadne observed as she ran a hand over the well trimmed seats.

"Yes." Cobb said noncommittally. "How is Eames? You mentioned he had joined the Army when last we spoke."

"He's back home at Blue Rivers." Ariadne sighed. "He was injured and discharged, but he'll be alright."

"Well, that's very good to hear." Cobb said brightly.  
"I suppose." Ariadne sighed. "I'd rather not talk about Mr. Eames just now."

"Alright." Cobb said. "I'm having a guest come over for dinner I want you to meet."

"Cobb, I really don't want to meet anyone just now." Ariadne sighed. "It's been a long few days, the children were sea sick and I've been read distressing things about Arthur's factories. Who's running them now?"

"I understand. I'm not... well I explain about the factories over dinner with our guest. It's no one important." Cobb insisted. "Just an old friend of mine."

"Cobb, my husband just died. I'm a widow twice over with two young children. I'm not interested in meeting any of your friends or have you play match maker." Ariadne told him.  
"It's not like that." Cobb told her. "It's just an old friend who I want you to meet. Besides," he added "last time I played match maker, I did a good job."

Ariadne gave him a tired smile.  
"No one is disputing that, sir." she said with a faint hint of happiness.


	4. Chapter 4

3.

~ Cobb's home was a comfortable town house in a part of the city developed for the growing middle class of America.

"We have a lot less poor people these days." Cobb explained as Ariadne commented on the number of automobiles and people who were dressed well.

"I see they've finished some of the buildings they were working on." she added. Remembering the skeletons of frame work when she had been to New York last.

"They're talking of building very tall buildings now. A company even want's to demolish the Waldorf Astoria and build on the sight." Cobb said.  
"Cobb, that's crazy!" Ariadne laughed.

"City's improving." he told her. "You'd hardly recognize it anymore."

~ Ariadne gasped when she saw Mal. The former slim ladies maid was heavy and rounded with child.  
"Mal!" Ariadne exclaimed as her hands went to the large belly.  
"Any day now." Mal said with a tired smile.  
"We're actually a few days late." Cobb said. "Doctor says there is no reason to worry."  
"Congratulations." Ariadne said with a smile as she wondered if she was ever that big with Olivia.

"You must be very upset and confused about why we didn't tell you." Mal said looking guilty.  
"I knew you were expecting." Ariadne said brightly as Olivia and Harold clung to her.

Both of them shy at being around strangers.  
Mal's brow furrowed.

"No, not about the baby." she said.  
"What do you mean?" Ariadne asked; not understanding.  
"You didn't tell her?" Mal accused Cobb. "Dom, you have to tell her."  
"Tell me what?" Ariadne asked.

"Ariadne, there is a situation I haven't been able to talk to you about until now. It's about Arthur." Cobb said.  
"We can talk about his factories after I put the children to bed." Ariadne said. Thinking, as always, that Cobb only knew or wanted to talk about business.

"That will be fine." Cobb said quickly.

"Dom!" Mal hissed at him.

The couple exchanged glares and Mal said angrily.  
"Tell her."

~ The Cobb's had provided Ariadne, Maura and the children with comfortable rooms in their home until they found a house in the city.  
"It is good to be back in America." Ariadne said as Maura went to work unpacking and Ariadne put Olivia and Harold down for their naps.  
"I received two telegrams from Mr. Eames already." Cobb said. "He's worried sick. You really need to write to him."

"What did you tell him?" Ariadne asked bitterly.  
"That I didn't know where you were." Cobb said dutifully.

"Good." she said as she and Cobb stood in the upstairs hall.

"Why did you leave Blue Rivers finally?" Cobb asked. "I've been trying to convince you to come to New York for over a year now."

"I know. Cobb, Eames and I were having an affair." Ariadne whispered.

Cobb took a deep breath and had the decency to look embarrassed.

"It just happened." Ariadne sighed. "He came back wounded and it was like we were best friends again. I had missed that. Then, it was like he had to have me... it was like I couldn't resist him. Fredrick was dieing, I was lonely."

"I knew he had feelings for you." Cobb whispered.  
"He wants us to get married... and I..." Ariadne shook her head. "He's not the right man for me. I think he would only break my heart and disappoint me. His mother and Lady Percy both warned me that he would be unfaithful and I believe them. I think he would get bored with me, with family life, and abandon me like he's always done." she sighed.  
"So you left him before he could leave you." Cobb concluded.  
"It will be easier this way." Ariadne told him.  
"You need to tell him. He thinks you and the children have been kidnapped by gypsies." Cobb told her and she laughed.  
"I'll telegraph him in a few days. Once I get my thoughts together and know what I'm going to say. I left Arthur's car at the hotel. He should be able to get it back at the very least." she told him.  
"He won't be able to come to America to get you. With the war on, it's very hard to get transit papers. You're an American and even then it took a lot to get you back, say thank you." Cobb prompted.  
"Thank you, Cobb." Ariadne said with a laugh as she took out her ladies handkerchief and dabbed her eyes.

"Don't worry about Eames. You're right, you need a better husband than him. He's not exactly Arthur. He couldn't provide for you like Arthur did." Cobb added.  
"It's not just that, I can provide for myself now. He's my best friend, but he's too idealistic. He has this fantasy life for us and isn't concerned about reality." she told him.

"He still thinks the two of you are in love. He doesn't know you don't love him."

"I never said I didn't love him, Cobb." she bit back. "I do love him. If it was just me, I would be with him. But I'm a mother and I can't have him vanishing from my children's lives when things get too hard."

Cobb opened his mouth to say something when they both heard the front door slam shut.  
"Dom?" came Mal's worried voice. "Can you come downstairs?"

Cobb looked at Ariadne. His blue eyes wide.  
"Cobb, what is it?" she asked. She sensed right away that something was very wrong. Cobb looked frightened.  
"I promised him I wouldn't say a word to you." he whispered.

"Promised who?" Ariadne asked. A confused look on her face.  
"I'm sorry." he said.

"What are you talking about?"

"There's no easy way to say this. No easy way to do this, Ariadne." Cobb said.  
"Cobb?" came a deep voice from the first floor.

Ariadne felt her heart skip a beat. That voice. That low, controlling, forceful voice. A voice that was almost boyish when happy yet cold and hard when angry.

She realized she was breathing hard as she walked numbly to the stairs.  
"Ariadne." Cobb whispered.

She ignored him and slowly went downstairs.

The man in the downstairs foyer had his back turned to the stairs. His suit was impeccable although not especially fashionable. It was a simple, well made garment that showed the owner to have money, but didn't waste time or effort on being trendy.

She knew him. Knew that slicked back hair, those large hands, that slender body of his. She didn't even need him to turn around to know who it was.

'_How can this be?_' she wondered as she watched him from the stairs.

She took another step down and the wood gave off a loud creak; giving her away.

Arthur turned at the noise and their eyes locked.

For an instant, she wanted to rush into his arms again. He was alive and real. She wasn't imagining it. It had been almost two years since the _Empress_ took him, and he looked every day of those two years had passed. His face was harder and his eyes weren't as bright as they were before.

Arthur looked stunned to see her. His eyes growing wide from the start and his lips parting.

"Ariadne." he whispered as she came down the last of the steps and walked towards him.

"When..." he swallowed. He backed away from her as she approached him. "When did you come back?"

She never ceased her stride, never slowed.

He was real, she could smell his aftershave and see the fine lines that had appeared on his once youthful face.

He looked like he was searching for an explanation. What could he say?

She never gave him the chance. She stood in front of him. All her senses telling her he was real, and she slapped him as hard as she could.


	5. Chapter 5

_~ Part IX ~_

_~ Collision Course ~_

1.

~ "I deserved that." Arthur admitted as he and Ariadne adjourned to the Cobb's dinning room to talk.

"You deserved that and more, sir. Faking your death so you could abandon your wife and child. Why not just seek a divorce? Lots of people do it and it would have been inder to me." she snarled as she looked at her refection in the large dinning room mirror.

She wished she had combed out her hair before seeing him. She was fresh off the boat with two small children. Dressed in her everyday blouse and her feminist slacks. She would have liked to have met him dressed nicely with powder on and her hair polished and swept up in the latest style.

_Then_ slapped him in the face.

She saw her 'late' husband's reflection in the mirror. He was holding a napkin full of ice to his injured cheek.

"Stop acting like I hurt you!" she snapped at him as she smoothed out her hair better and wished she had looked more presentable.

"Well you did, madam. You _did_ hurt me. I'm not used to being accosted by my wife and couldn't act accordingly to defend myself." he bit back.

"I'm not your wife!" she almost shouted.

Arthur said nothing but put the napkin and ice into a nearby bowl.

"I'm sorry, Ariadne." he said looking remorseful.  
"Sorry?" she almost cried. "Arthur, you made me think you were dead. I mourned for you. We had a funeral for you. Do you have any idea what you put me through? Why didn't you just leave me if you were didn't love me anymore? Why didn't you just tell me you were unhappy?"

"I didn't abandon you and Olivia." Arthur said as he stood a little straighter. "I would never abandon my wife and child."

She gave him a cruel laugh.  
"It's true." he said defensively. "I was on the_ Empress_ and it sank. I was on my why home to you. I had these teddy bears for you and the children. I had even bought a special one for..." he shook his head and seemed to grow angry at her.

"The shock of the cold water, it confused me for a long time. I was grouped in with the crew after the sinking and started drinking. I was thrown in jail for a while for fighting and even an asylum." he said bitterly

"Poor thing." she said. Her voice ripe with sarcasm. "How hard it must have been for you. Were you the one who had to tell your only child that her father was dead? I made Olivia kiss your picture every night while you were really alive and drinking and God knows what else."  
"Ariadne, I wasn't well." Arthur pleaded. "I couldn't have come home to you like that. I barely knew who I was. I was sick all the time. When I saw your engagement in the paper to that Hays person, I finally called Cobb and told him I was still alive. I had him take divorce papers to you. You signed them thinking they were contracts for support."

Ariadne shook her head in disbelief.  
"So were divorced?" she whispered. A terrible hole growing in her heart. "You _divorced_ me?"

"I wanted you to be happy. I thought you might really love this man. That he was a man of your choosing. That he wasn't a man you were forced to marry. I wanted you to be happy." he explained.  
"Arthur, I wasn't happy. I was grieving!" she shouted. "Do you have any idea what it felt like to lose you? To not even have a body to bury? To look at my child and to have her know that she will never know her father?"

Arthur looked at his shoes.

"Is Olivia here?" he whispered. "Is your husband... Mr. Hays... is he here?"

"Fredrick passed away a week ago from injuries he sustained during the fighting in Europe." Ariadne told him stiffly.

Arthur looked up at her. He was meet with the full force of her anger.  
"Olivia?" he asked respectfully.

"You will not see my daughter." she said stubbornly.  
"She's my child to, Ariadne." Arthur breathed. "I've missed the both of you more then I can tell you."

"She is not your child, Arthur." she said icily. "My child's father died on the Empress. I've never hid that fact from her. I won't reintroduce you to her as being alive. She thinks her father loved her and didn't abandon her!"

"I want to see her!" Arthur roared.  
"No!" she shouted back.

Arthur looked angry and Ariadne realized she was breathing hard.

She was so mad herself now, she felt her rage was capable of anything. She wanted to kill him. Hurt him beyond repair for putting her through such grief.

She knew just how to do it to. How to wound him so deeply, he would never recover.

All it would take was the simple truth of her being with Eames. She knew how much her convenient husband loathed his cousin. If she told him the truth about being with him, Arthur would be crushed.

She wanted to say it, but her courage suddenly failed her.

Because after everything, he was still the man who taught her to drive. The man who scolded her for sneaking off to french museums. The man who showed her off on a luxury sea voyage and to his snobbish relatives in England. He was the man who held her new born daughter with such care and pride. The man who had married her and saved her.

"You... can't let Olivia see you." she whispered. "I won't have her thinking you abandoned her. It will confuse her. You can't ever contact us again."

"Just let me see her." Arthur whispered and took her hand.

~ Olivia slept the fearless sleep of children who had spent too much energy and needed to recharge.

Her cheeks were rosy pink in her sleep as Arthur ran a protective hand over her auburn hair.

"She's gotten so big." he said with a smile.

He tucked the child in bed more securely.  
"Don't wake her up." Ariadne warned.

"I keep thinking she's just a baby." he whispered as they watched their daughter sleep.

He looked at the framed picture on the night stand.

"You really have her kiss my picture each night?" he asked.

Ariadne pulled him out of Olivia's bedroom.

"I thought you were dead. I wanted her to remember how much you loved her." she said and closed the door.  
"I do." Arthur whispered as they went into Ariadne's bedroom. "I still love the both of you. I sent divorce papers with Cobb because I wanted you to be happy. I didn't want you to cancel your wedding because I was still alive. I wanted you to marry the man you loved."

Ariadne didn't say a word.

"You did love him. Cobb showed me some of the pictures of your wedding day. You looked so beautiful. It was the wedding you deserved." he said.

"Arthur, you should have told me. I can forgive you for being confused and afraid after the sinking. A lot of men in the war have back home with Shell Shock, but when you knew I was getting married, you should have at least let me know you were alive. I would never have married Fredrick if I knew you were still alive." she said sadly.

Arthur looked hopeful.

"You wouldn't?" he whispered as she felt his large, familiar hands on her arms.

"I wouldn't have married him or divorced you. You took the choice away from me." she whispered as he stepped closer and she could smell the inviting aftershave.

"Stop." she ordered.

"Would you have taken me back? After all I put you through?" he whispered as his lips were so close to hers.

She felt that pull she always had towards Arthur.

Her convenient husband was comfort, familiarity, safety and protection. She was never afraid or scared when she was with him. He was more assuring and sound than any man she ever knew. That female weakness of wanting a protective, capable man won out and she melted into him with ease and relief.

"Ariadne, I'm so sorry. For all I put you through. I tired to make it right, but I made it worse." his whispered as she felt his lips touch hers.  
"Arthur." she protested.

"I'm a mess without you. I wasn't well... I wasn't." he insisted as she was feeling the fabric of his suit and smelling the wonderful scent of his aftershave and soap.

"We can be happy again." he whispered as he kissed her. "We can."


	6. Chapter 6

2.

~ Ariadne stepped back.  
"Stop it!" she hissed as Arthur's large hands threatened to lace his fingers with hers.

"Stop what?" he asked innocently as he moved closer to her and she moved back again.  
"You know what. I'm not forgiving you, Arthur." she told him as she wished she didn't feel so weak just now. She wished she had the courage to hate him. Had the fortitude to resist him.

He had put her through hell and could not be forgiven.

"I'm not asking you to, madam. You have every right to be cross with me." he whispered as he looked ready to kiss her.

Stop it!" she snarled him. "And don't call me _madam_ anymore."

"I've always called you_ madam_, madam." he told her in his most business like voice.

"I know, and now I want you to stop."

"So, you want us to find new endearments for one another?" he asked with a mocking smile.  
"I don't want anything from you." she snapped. "I'm not your wife anymore, remember?"

Arthur stepped back as if he had been struck.  
"That would be easily rectified." he assured her, his voice hard.

She gave him a bitter laugh.  
"Don't flatter yourself, sir. I married you to save myself. I'm not stupid enough to make that mistake again." she snarled and instantly regretted it. She didn't want to hurt him. Even after all this, she didn't want to hurt him.  
Arthur looked hurt.  
"Our marriage wasn't a mistake. It was many things... but it was never a mistake." he said calmly.  
"Arthur, you still don't understand what you've done. For almost two years now, I thought my husband was dead. Don't think we're going to be together now." she said and tried not to cry.

She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of tears.  
"Did you really make my Olivia kiss my picture every night?" he asked hopefully.

She rolled her eyes.

"Yes. She keeps your picture by her bed so her 'Daddy' can watch over her. It's apart of our nightly ritual." she sighed. Wishing she had never taught her daughter to love a photograph.  
"She can say daddy now?" Arthur asked sadly.  
"She's almost three." Ariadne told him harshly.

He nodded.  
"I keep thinking she's still a little baby. She can walk and talk now." Arthur said shaking his head. "I've missed all of it."

"She talks all the time. She's a good girl. Plays quietly by herself and never lets her brother play with her." Ariadne told him.  
"Her _brother_?" Arthur asked.  
"Yes, Harold. He came over with us from Blue Rivers." Ariadne explained.  
"You had a baby?" Arthur asked; his brow pulling down into a scowl.

Ariadne opened her mouth to explain as her convenient husband looked thunderstruck.  
"You and Mr. Hays had a child?" he asked. Trying to sound interested and happy for her. But only sounding hurt.  
"Harold was Fredrick's son from his first wife. She died in child birth." Ariadne explained.

She wanted to tell Arthur that Fredrick hadn't really loved her. That she was a convenient wife for him as well. But she bit her lip. She wouldn't confide in Arthur again. The hurt was still too raw.  
"Oh." Arthur breathed a sigh of relief.

"No, I didn't have another baby." she assured him.

She almost laughed at the idea of another child. How dreadful having a baby would be just now.

"I'm sorry Mr. Hays passed away." he said sincerely. "I'm sure he was a good man."

"He was." she told him numbly. "Eames bride jilted him just a week before his wedding." and let lose a laugh that made her feel suddenly good again.  
"I saw he was going to get married. She left him?" Arthur laughed. A real smile coming to his face and dimples appeared as he looked much younger all of the sudden.  
"Oh yes. When she found out there would be no money, she left him that day." Ariadne said as they both had a laugh at Eames' expense.  
"I was still alive and was able to revert all my capital and holdings. Give you and Olivia a living allowance. I didn't want you at the mercy of Eames." he explained as they both stopped grinning stupidly.  
"Why didn't you just come back to me? Sick or not, I would have had you." she whispered.  
"Ariadne, I was in very bad shape." he tried to explain. "I saw your wedding announcement, and I thought I was doing the right thing. Thought I was letting you be free to marry a man you really loved. I thought you would be happy. Let's face it, I was a lousy husband at times."

She didn't say anything as she wished she didn't love him still.

"You were a good husband, Arthur." she said and didn't look at him.

Arthur let out a long sigh.  
"So, Mr. Hays is gone now. You and my daughter are here in America all alone. I'm still single..." he said as an after thought.

"No, Arthur." she told him sharply.  
"You don't know what I was about to say." he said in mock innocence.  
"Nice try. But I have no intention of ever remarrying. I'm tired of feeling used." she said angrily.

"Used? When did I ever make you feel used?" he asked.

She gave him an ugly look.  
"I know when we were first married, things were hard for us. But... we worked past it. We loved each other then. I think we still do." he whispered and tried to touch her hair.

"Stop." she warned him.

"Or you'll slap me again, madam?" he teased with the impish smile of his.  
"Arthur." she warned.

"Did Mr. Hays make you feel used? He married you, then went off to war. Leaving you to care for his son?" Arthur asked.

Her jaw dropped. How did he guess?  
"Who told you that?" she whispered.  
He gave her a shrug.  
"It's the sensible thing to do. If I had lost you, I would protect Olivia with any resource I could think of." he said.  
"But you didn't protect her. You made her think her father was dead." Ariadne accused.  
"We can get it back, darling." he whispered as his large hands were suddenly in her hair and were pulling her close to him.

She wished she looked better. Wished she had dressed better and didn't have on her modern slacks.

"We can't. It's broken, Arthur." she whispered as he started to kiss her.  
"We can fix it." he insisted as he was moving her to the bed. Her little hands pulling off his jacket and undoing his tie.  
"I've missed you. I mourned for you." she cried as he was kissing her so heatedly, she forgot to think.  
"I've missed you to. I've mourned for you to. We can go back." he insisted as he helped her strip herself. Her sensible blouse and slacks falling off her and puddling on the floor.

"No." she insisted as he was nuzzling her ear.

Arthur knew exactly how to comfort her. His touch making her feel safe and loved. He had none of Eames' lust crazed excitement or forcefulness. Arthur was comfortable and easy. His movements reassuringly predictable.

She wilted slightly as he kissed her and lowed her onto the bed.

**Don't worry, there will be A&A lovin' just have to tease you. Besides, they can't work it ALL out in just one chapter!**

**Happy Valentine's Day! My sweet hubby gave me roses and a copy of "Only Mr. Darcy will do". Great book, I've read it before when it was still called: "Something Like Regret".**


	7. Chapter 7

3.

~ This was so easy. So easy to fall back into his wife and family, Arthur wondered what kind of life he had been living without them. He had missed his convenient wife and daughter terribly, but he wondered now how he had found his way through day to day existence without them.

Ariadne felt more wonderful than he remembered. Her hair, her body, her lips were like returning to some pleasing food he had needed to live. His blood snapped hotly in his body as he lowered her onto the bed and she protested weakly as his hands wandered down to the sensible slacks she was wearing.

"I see you've become even more of a modern woman." he teased as he tried to find the zipper that pulled them apart.

Ariadne was too much perfection with her everyday blouse off and her lacy slip covering her delicate body as he finally found the seam to her pants and unzipped them.  
"Arthur." she said as his hands were pulling her free of clothing and he could feel her unbuttoning his shirt in turn.

It was like something had been restored. Something he had learned to do without for a long time and now that it was finally back, it was like the first time.  
"I want you." he whispered as her body felt perfect under his.

He could already feel his own excitement start to build for her and wondered if it would be unseemly to press his hardness onto her. Let her know exactly what he wanted. Perhaps she might respond favorably, or fly into a rage. He never knew with Ariadne.

"I'm still mad at you." she was saying as he kissed her.  
"I know." he agreed as her hands wandered up to the collar of his jacket. Pulling it off him.

He allowed his jacket to shed off him like the useless fabric it was just now.  
"I just..." she mewed as he knew just how to distract her. He had to distract her. Get her to stop being so angry with him and remind her of all they had; all they could have again.

"Arthur..." she panted hotly as he was kissing her over and over again. His lips, unable to stop.  
"Wait." she breathed.

She tried to push him off, but his hands were over hers in an instant. Easily pinning them down as she stared back at him defiantly.  
"This doesn't solve our problems." she said breathlessly. Her cheeks pink from all their kissing and removal of clothing.  
"It can solve a few things." he decided. And went to kiss her again.  
"Stop." she said.

Arthur halted his advancement, gave her an amused look and kissed the delicate flesh of her wrist. Just below where his hands were holding her down.

She let out a long sigh and looked helplessly up at him. Her eyes larger than normal as she seemed especially vulnerable just now.  
"Alight." he capitulated and moved off her, letting her arms go.  
"No!" she gasped in horror and pulled him back.

A title wave of self satisfaction rushed over him as he moved back over her. His body molding neatly on top of hers and his hands encircling her wrists again.

Ariadne looked relived to be back in her captive position as he examined her pretty face.

Two hard and difficult years had gone by, but she was still his wife. Still the girl in that gray traveling suit with a ridiculous hat that he had married. Still the woman he had bedded and still Olivia's mother.  
"I want you back." he whispered. "I want my wife and my daughter back."

He wasn't prepared to let them go again. Ariadne could be stubborn, but he would not allow another second to pass without them.

"No." she whispered.  
"I'm your husband." he insisted and kissed her as she lightly resisted her restraints.

"No... I... I won't marry you." she told him.

"Yes, you will." he told her.  
"No, I won't!" she said and tried to keep the laughter from her eyes.  
"You will." he told her and kissed her again.  
"Arthur, stop." she panted as he lingered on her neck and ears the way he knew she liked.  
"Say you'll be my wife again." he said as he felt her body squirm deliciously under him.

"No." she panted as she obviously enjoyed his torments.  
"Say you'll marry me or I'll stop." he threatened and pulled away from her slightly.  
"Arthur!" she cried out and refused to let him leave.

He felt full of pride that he had some power over her. That he could manipulate her just as she did him. Although her powers tended to bewitch him to the extreme.

"Arthur, why have you allowed your factories to be run so badly?" she asked him as he settled himself over her again.

Arthur had to stop and look at her. He wasn't expecting that question at all.

"What?" he asked.  
"I read in the papers about the rioting and how you're abusing the workers." she told him.

Arthur moved away from her then and she looked at him intently.

"Who's running your factories and why are you letting them do that?" she asked.  
"No one runs my factories but me, madam." he said coldly. "No one forces my workers there. I pay them the money they agreed to work for before they were hired. They agreed to work these hours. They have the freedom to quit any time."

"You pay them slave wages!" she accused.  
"They are free to find other jobs!" he said feeling defensive. "The war means there is a lot of money to be made. When there is money to be made, that means there is jobs for immigrants. That is why they come to this country!"

"But you don't pay them enough! You've been hording profits for yourself!" she said angrily.  
"If I turn a profit, the company profits and grows. More jobs, more growth. The workers will profit as the company profits. You don't understand business, madam." he told her.  
"I understand plenty, sir, and I don't want your money." she told him as she rolled away from him and searched for her blouse and feminist slacks.  
"What?" he growled.  
"I don't want your monthly allowance you've been sending to me. I thought it was a living expense from my late husband's estate. Not blood money from a soulless tycoon who makes his living off the hard work and suffering of the poor, all the while keeping them poor!" she accused.

"That money I send to you is for my wife and my daughter to live comfortably." he growled.  
"I'm not your wife and we both know Olivia isn't your daughter!" she snarled as she threw on her blouse.  
He glared at her. His eyes growing cold. A deep wound penetrating his body as a horrible hurt started to grow.  
"Never say that to me again." he said in a voice a dark as pitch.

He could tell she wanted to say it again. Just to prove she could. But she knew it would be stepping over the line.  
"Olivia is _my_ child. She was _born_ my child, she will _die_ my child. She will never know about... that _other man_. Do you understand?" he growled.

Ariadne refused to look at him.  
"Think whatever you want against me, but you will not deny me my child, Ariadne." he threatened.  
Arthur took a step back to collect himself.

He felt wounded by the truth of not being Olivia's real father. She was _his_. She was his little girl since the day she was born and peeked out at him through her blankets. She was his from the moment he saw her and was so scared Ariadne was going to die. So scared he would have to care for that baby alone.  
"Olivia is my daughter, you are my wife." he said as he shrugged on his coat. "I have errands to run, but I'll be back for dinner tonight. You can tell _our_ daughter I was away at work all this time, but I will see her."

Arthur tried to control his anger as he left his beautiful, maddening, idealistic, headstrong, irresistible, convenient wife alone.


	8. Chapter 8

** No posts for the next few days. I'm sorry but our beloved dog Sophie just passed away today. **

** She had sudden and severe liver failure and we put her to sleep at the vet's office. She was 11 years old and we've had her since she was six weeks old. **

** My husband and I loved her like our baby and she loved my husband to death. We were not ready to say good bye to her. But she went to sleep with her mommy and daddy there. Telling her she was a good girl. **

** We wanted more time with her, but it was her time to go. She was suffering and ready. We did the right thing in letting her die, but it's not easy. **

** So, I don't feel much like writing or updating, but I will soon.**

**Thank you all for your love and support.**

**Leah**


	9. Chapter 9

4.

**~ Blue Rivers Telegraph Office ~**

**To: Mr. Charles R. Eames**

**Care of Blue Rivers Manor**

**From: Mrs. Ariadne Bradford Hays**

** Eames.**

** I'm very sorry to have left so suddenly after the funereal.**

** I am safely in America with Olivia and Harold.**

** We are staying with Mr. Cobb and his wife for now. **

** We plan to live overseas indefinitely. **

** I'm very sorry. **

** Pleas do not come for me. **

** Regards.**

** Ariadne Bradford Hays**

**~ Western Union Telegraph Office ~**

**New York, New York**

~ Ariadne looked at the sad little letter she had been working on for the past few hours. Her ability to write was becoming questionable these days as she didn't know what to say on paper any more.

She had cleaned herself up. Put on a proper skirt and a had been trying to write to Eames about why she left. The words failed her.

She had sent a telegram an hour ago explaining where she was so he should not worry the gypsies had taken her. But she knew her closeness with her old friend would require much more of an explanation.

She let out a long sigh and started to write again.

_Dear Eames,_

_ I'm very sorry for how I left things. How I left you was extremely childish and you deserved more than that. None of it was right or fair. _

_ I do love you very much and the idea of staying with you, of building a life with you, is very appealing to me. But as a mother of two very young people, I have to think of them._

_ If it were only myself to worry about, things would be different. But I must think of my son and daughter. What kind of a life would they have with a father figure who would so easily abandon them when things became difficult? _

_ It's not fair to them, or to anyone else. Please understand and let me go. I'm sure we will be very happy in America. _

Ariadne stopped her writing as her pen wanted to scratch the name Arthur into the creamy white stationary.

'_No, I can't do that._' she thought bitterly. Knowledge of Arthur still being alive would send not only Eames into a frantic race to try and get to her, but might cause more problems than it would fix.

She rolled her eyes upward and thought about what to do. Finally, she took the cowardly way out.

_I wish you luck in your writing._

_ Ariadne._

She sighed it without flourish or swirls.

She had to do this. Had to cut the ties that bound her to Blue Rivers, to Eames. She had to start a new life now. One without Eames and one without Arthur.

She had the kitchen maid mail out the letter to England and finished getting ready for dinner. Arthur would be coming by and she had to find the courage to tell him she didn't want to see him either. Too many memories were haunting her just now. Too many lovers and too may things she had walked away from were coming back to her.

She had fled America in shame and married a man she had just met. She had likewise fled England to escape a lover that would no doubt ruin her.

She gave a bitter laugh as she fixed her hair in the mirror.

'_I'm already a ruined woman._' she decided.

~ Still, there was no reason why a ruined woman shouldn't look good. She had fallen out of habit for dressing well. There was no need with the war on and her husband and lover both away. But tonight she made more of an effort to look nice. Even putting on scent and a using the light face powder Mal lent her.

Cobb's wife had been having labor pains all day, but the contractions were far apart and it might be days before the baby arrived.

Ariadne stood and looked herself over in the full length mirror.

'_Who exactly are you dressing up for_?' she asked herself. '_Arthur is coming over to see Olivia, not you. You said you didn't want him. Now you're dressing nice for him. Anyone would think you wanted to impress him._'

She let out a long, irritated sigh at these thoughts. All these words came into her head in Lady Percy's voice. Aside from Arthur, Lady Percy was the most sensible person she had ever known. It made sense her inner logic was telling her what to do in that voice.

'_I don't know why you're putting so much bait out, dear._' her inner voice went on. '_If you profess to not want any fish._'

Ariadne decided not to listen and made sure she looked nice as the front door bell rang.

~ Olivia was playing contently in the little play room downstairs as Maura let Arthur in.

"Sir." the maid said not believing it was really him. "Missus told me that you were still alive, but I didn't believe it till now."

Arthur strode in looking like the perfectly presentable business man he was. Ariadne stopped on the stairs to examine him unseen. She wondered if any other woman on earth found him as wonderful as she did. He was so handsome; so assured in everything his did.

When he stepped into a room, it was with a graceful confidence and assurance she had never seen in anyone else. He made no apologies in anything he did; even now as he gave Maura his coat while holding a bouquet of flowers.

"It was all a misunderstanding, Maura." he said in that deep voice Ariadne loved. "I assure you, I'm quite well."

"Yes, we've been plagued with misunderstandings, haven't we?" Ariadne accused as she came out of the hall way.

She almost gasped as Arthur laid his eyes on her. She could tell by the way the fierceness of his face softened, that he liked what he saw. His normally cold eyes brightened as he looked her up and down, and seemed to approve.

" You look very nice. I see you've abandoned you're modern look, madam." he said as he tried to hand her the offering of flowers.

"Just for this evening, sir. I don't want those." she told him sharply.

"Maura, will you put these in a vase?" Arthur asked. Not deterred by the rebuff from his lady.

"Yes, sir." the skittish maid said as she gave the two of them a little curtsey and took the flowers to the next room.

"I never had the chance to court you properly, madam." Arthur said with a shrug. "It's high time I did so. I think flowers will suit."

"You've given me flowers before, sir." she told him. "At Blue Rivers the first few days after we got there."

"Doesn't count we were already married. I intend to court you the correct way." he informed her.

"You haven't lost you charms, sir." Ariadne said dryly as she felt her cheeks grow warm.

"Good to know, madam." he said with a small smile.

"But they won't work on me." she said bitterly.

"We shall see." Arthur told her nonchalantly. "Where's Olivia?" he asked, his eyes searching the rooms for the child.

"Arthur, I really wish you wouldn't traumatize her. She's always been told you're dead." Ariadne pleaded as her convenient husband moved passed her and into the little play room Cobb had provided for them.

~ Olivia's mother had dressed her well in expectation of Arthur's visit. She played with her toys as always; alone and contentedly. Harold excluded from his sisters activities.

"Mama?" the boy questioned as he spotted Ariadne and Arthur come in.

"It's alright, dear." she said to him as Arthur scowled darkly at the boy.

Ariadne cleared her throat as Harold went to his step mother and took her hand. His eyes growing wide at the appearance of this strange man with a brooding face.

"Harold, I want you to meet my... um... friend. Arthur Bradford." Ariadne said searching for the right thing to say.

"Pleased to meet you, sir." Harold said offering Arthur his small hand.

The older man scowled at the little boy and shook his hand like they were business partners.

"Likewise, Harold." he said. "Tell me, why aren't you playing with Olivia?"

"She doesn't like me, sir." Harold explained.

Arthur gave a grumpy nod as he seemed to understand.

"Yes, I think it's a family trait she inherited from her mother. The not liking of gentlemen like us." he admitted and Ariadne gave him an aggravated glare.

"Harold, dear, will you go upstairs and play a while?" she asked him.

The boy looked up at Ariadne before nodding and leaving.

"I never knew Olivia could be so snobbish." Arthur admitted as they watched Harold leave.

"She's _your _daughter." Ariadne accused grumpily. "Olivia, come here." she called to the child.

"No." Olivia sang out as she barely glanced at her mother and continued to play.

"Olivia, now." Ariadne said.

"Olivia, come here." Arthur demanded sharply.

The little girl with the dark brown hair turned her large eyes on Arthur. His deep voice no doubt resonating some deeply buried memory for her.

"My God." Arthur breathed as Olivia looked at him curiously. "She looks like you." he said sadly.

"I know." Ariadne said with a sad smile. "But don't worry, she acts like you enough."

"Olivia?" Arthur called to the girl who slowly abandoned her play to come to her mother and this stranger.

"Olivia, this is your daddy." Ariadne said bravely.

"No." Olivia told them.

"Yes, honey. Daddy was away at work, but he's home now." Ariadne said holding back tears in her eyes.

The little girl shook her head.

"No, mamma." she said.

"Honey, I am your daddy." Arthur said soothingly.

His face pulling into a look of rejection as Olivia buried her head in Ariadne's chest.

"She'll come around." Ariadne promised him with a whisper.

She watched as Arthur put one of his large hands on Olivia's head and run his fingers through her dark hair.

"I just can't get over how much she's grown. How much I've missed." he said as if in a trance.

He seemed to pull himself out suddenly and looked at them.

"I'm going to make it right, Ariadne." he promised hastily. "For the both of you. I know I was wrong for... for everything, but I'm back now and we can be a family again."

Ariadne rolled her eyes.

"There's no going back, Arthur." she said sadly.

"We almost had it back this afternoon." he challenged.

She gave him one of her disgusted looks.

"It's not as simple as a heartfelt apology, Arthur. Things have changed." she told him.

"What? Harold?" he laughed. "I know you're his step mother now. There is no reason why he can't live with us. I'll buy us any house you want. Big enough for our family. I'll make any changes to the factories you want. Just... just come back to me. Be my wife again. My life... it's worthless without you in it."

She felt her heart grow soft and warm at his words. To be married to Arthur again. To be with a man who was always so safe and reliable. To never have to worry about anything was comforting. He could be cold and angry at times, but she had always been able to control that. She had always been able to break him out of his shell.

Her small hand was touching his freshly shaven cheek.

"Arthur." she whispered as they sat on the floor of the play room. Side by side as Olivia peeked out at the man who's picture she had always been told was her daddy.

"I know you still love me." he said confidently.

"I do." she admitted. "I still love you."

"Then let's go back. Back to being a family again." he said.

She wanted to say yes. The words were almost out of her mouth, when a terrible scream ripped through the house.

**Thank you all so much for your loving words of comfort for our family. My husband and I had Sophie for 11 years and we got her just a few months after we were married. It's so strange that she isn't here anymore. She was almost 11 and we thought we had more time with her. **

**She was my husband's dog and they were in love. He didn't cry on 9/11 or when his dad died, but he cried when our dog passed. He blames himself for her dying, when it was no one's fault. It was her time. Sophie showed no sighs she was in distress until that day she died, but had been in liver failure for some time. **

**She passed with her mommy and daddy there telling her how we loved her and she was a good girl. **

**The vet's office is having her cremated and they were very understanding to our family. **

**We doubt we will get another dog. It's just too hard to lose a dog like that. One who is so entrenched in the family. Such a large part of our lives. **

**I have a special Facebook page under the name of Sadie Eames for my fans. It's not my real name, but it's open to the public to see pictures and my random thoughts. You can friend me or follow me, what ever you want. **

** Most of it will be about stuff I'm doing or reading or things I thought were funny. It will be under the email I_am_Sadie_Eames at yahoo.**


	10. Chapter 10

_~ Part X ~_

_~ Resolutions ~ _

1.

~ Mal took her last breath giving birth to a baby boy that had most likely died in the womb days before. The doctor had told them the toxic shock was most likely what took her life.

The epic tragedy of their combined loss was too much for Cobb to absorb.

Ariadne noted he had taken to wandering around his now empty house. As if looking for his wife to appear. That maybe she was just in another room and not gone forever.  
Arthur had stepped in and arranged everything. Much the same way Eames took over after the _Empress_ sank. The tactful and artful businessman coming out as Cobb was useless these days. It was a very private and small funeral. Only the close family was invited as they laid Mal to rest with the child.

~ After the service, Arthur drove them home.

"I thought we had more time." Cobb whispered to Ariadne.

She jumped at the sound of his voice. Cobb hadn't spoken much since that awful evening where he was forced to watch Mal bleed to death as Arthur left for the doctor and Ariadne and Maura did all they could to save her.

Memories of delivering a stillborn baby, cold and lifeless, and all that blood that wouldn't stop.

"She was still young. I just thought we had more time." Cobb whispered again.

"I'm so sorry." she said and tried to hold his hand.

Cobb brushed her off.

"I can't... I can't go back into that house knowing she isn't there. There was so much of our lives we had to live still. It isn't fair." he said.

"Cobb, I know what you're feeling. When Arthur..." she looked up at her convenient husband and saw his eyes dart to her from the rear-view mirror. "When I thought he was gone, I felt lost. It took me a long time to accept he was gone. It hurt me, remember?"

Cobb blinked out tears and nodded.

She could feel Arthur's eyes on her. Her late husband glaring at her from the rear view mirror as he drove home.

~ Arthur and Ariadne were overly polite to one another for the rest of the evening.

"Thank you." she whispered as he helped her clean up the little sitting room and they did the small domestic chores to help Cobb.

"I'm staying over tonight." he announced as Cobb left for bed right away and the house was still.

"You can stay in the guest room." Ariadne told him as they took the tea trays into the kitchen.

"No, I'll be staying with you." he told her.

"You most certainly will not, sir." she told him bitterly.

"Yes, I will."

"Just because Mal has left us-"

"Mal passing proves one thing, that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. We've wasted enough time fighting and being angry with each other already. I'm sorry... for everything." Arthur told her sincerely. "I'm sorry I forced you to feel pain. I wasn't well for a long time, but that is no excuse. I should have understood how you must have felt. Thinking I was dead."

"I can't forgive you for it, Arthur." she whispered.

"I understand that. Can we move on? Can we try to be happy together?" he asked. "We were happy once."

She wanted to shake her head. Wanted to tell him to leave and not come back. Perhaps if Mal hadn't died, if there was not such a heavy weight of sadness and stillness in the house, she would have banished him from her life. But the specter of death made her remember how short their lives were. How indeed, there were no promises of tomorrow.

Her handsome, convenient husband looked at her imploringly.

"Arthur, come to bed." she capitulated.

~ "This changes nothing." she scolded him as the couple readied for sleep. Her convenient husband looking happy as he waited for his bride to come to him in the bed they would share. His lean body making room for her in her next to him.

He only gave her a smile as she slipped off her robe and stood before him in her night dress.

"I think I've missed this the most." he admitted as she folded the blankets over her and felt his large hands run over her stomach possessively. His nose in her hair and his lips on her neck.

"We're just going to _sleep_, Arthur." she told him stubbornly.

"I'm not tired." he said in a happy voice.

"Well, I am. It's been a long day."

"I know what will make me tired." he offered as she felt his large feet run over her own. A boyish grin spreading on his face.

"Sleeping in the guest room?" she teased in an sweet voice.

He gave her a grin before leaning over and stealing a kiss. She felt her blood spark hotly at the contact. Her pulse snapping faster and her body waking up and wanting attention.

"Arthur." she scolded as she felt his hands run over her undergarment and her legs part slightly.

"I've missed you." he whispered. "I've missed my wife. We can have a big wedding if you want. Or we can go to the court house like before. I just need my wife back. I need my daughter back." he said as he moved dangerously over her.

His body suddenly heavy at it trapped her under him.

"Wait." she panted as she tried to move away.

"For what?" he asked as he was kissing her and she could feel her body start to heat up with excitement for him.

"Arthur, I never said I would marry you." she whispered as she felt her hips rocking in time with his.

"You _will _marry me. I'm your husband." he told her. "I'm a better man with you as my wife."

She felt herself weaken as the comfort, the familiarity of his body made her relax and enjoy all he had to give her. Her body remembered this. Remembered this man and the way he would touch her. Her skin felt electric as his hands moved over her and she wanted to be naked with him. Wanted that contact she thought was lost to her forever.

His hands exploring her body as she wrapped her legs around his slender waist.

"Take your gown off." he commanded and she complied without a second thought. Her body exposed to the night air as his lips burned her flesh from her neck and finally landed on her breasts where, she gasped at the sharp pain of him sucking her nipples.

Her back arched instinctively as his lips angrily pulled at the tender flesh.

"God, I've missed you." he panted as he moved her panties off and left her ready for his explorations.

His lips returning to her breasts and she fought the urge to say '_Eames_' as he abused her just the way her former lover was so fond of.

'_Why do men love breasts so much?'_ she wondered as her convenient husband made the sensitive nipples become hard and pointed. '_What's the fascination?_'

She felt Arthur's fingers dive between her legs and she took in a sharp breath. He was grinding his fingers into her. Preparing her for when he would have her. He had always done this, always touched her delicate flesh before mounting her. Her body responding perfectly with his as she felt his thumb graze over the crest of her desire and her hips bucked slightly.

"Say you'll marry me." he ordered as he was making her breasts sensitive. "Say yes."

"Yes." she moaned as his large hands stimulated her between the legs. Her own release emanate as he stopped what he was doing, shed himself of clothing and took her.

~ It was like the first time. Her body excited and alert like he was a new lover, not her husband at all.

Arthur was grinning shamelessly as her mouth greedily sucked up and down his enlarged member.

"Where did you learn to do that?" he managed to groan as she laced her lips around his head and slowly, slowly, slowly worked her way down.

He let out a loud groan that made her want to laugh. The power she had over him was wonderful. No wonder men were so fond of taking things in bed. She was making him feel things against his will right now and it was empowering.

"The library at Blue Rivers has a book called the Kamasutra." she told him as her hands took over from her mouth.

"I think I've heard about that." Arthur said and sharply gasped as she tormented him further.

Ariadne felt a wave of guilt at lying to him. It wasn't exactly lying. The book could be in the library and not in Eames' night stand where her lover had shown her pictures and careful instructions they used every night.

That she had practiced this on her lover many times to disable him for her own needs.

There was no reason to feel guilt with Arthur about being with Eames. She thought he was dead. She should felt guilt towards Fredrick. He was still her husband at the time. Yet, she didn't feel guilty. Didn't feel ashamed to have been with Eames while Fredrick was alive. Now, with Arthur back, everything had changed.

"We'll have to get a copy." he gasped as he gently shooed her away from her sucking and made her straddle him.

Ariadne was careful as she eased her slightly body onto his ridged member. Surprised she was able to take all of him inside her.

Arthur watched himself go into her with fascination before making her ride him.

"I'll take care of you." he whispered as her inner wall immediately contracted hard on him. "You and the children. I'll do whatever you want as far as running the factories."

He was panting now as she bounced and allowed him to look at her naked body in motion.

"I just... I need you to be my wife again." he breathed.

His hands wandered possessively up to her breasts and she jumped slightly. The contact to intense, and she made him put his hands on her hips instead.

Her breasts and nipples were sensitive. Sensitive and slightly larger.

She pushed the memory aside, but it came roaring back stronger than ever. The memory of when she first knew Olivia was coming. With Olivia, her breasts were the first indicator. Before she had even missed a cycle, her nipples has become so sensitive, she could barely stand it.

'_It can't be. Not after Arthur and I had tried so hard. I can't have fallen pregnant by Eames._' she thought.


	11. Chapter 11

2.

~ It had to be just her imagination. Her worst fears giving her mind power over her body.

Ariadne looked at her naked form in the full length mirror that morning. Her convenient husband sleeping contentedly in the bed, another man's baby inside her as she wondered what to do.

She looked at her breasts. How much darker the nipples were, how swollen they had become.

'_Arthur and I tried for months to get pregnant, now this?_' she thought bitterly. '_Now I've got my husband back and I'm going to have Eames' baby?_'

The irony of it wasn't lost on her. Cutting ties with Eames now would be impossible. Even if they never saw one another again, if he never knew about the child, she would have a reminder of her lover forever. A little person who looked like him and would force her to always remember what she had with him.

What would Arthur do once he found out? She had just started sleeping with her convenient husband again. The last time she was with Eames was almost a month ago. Arthur would know the baby wasn't his.

'_What am I thinking? I would never lie to Arthur about a child not being his._' she told herself.

She fought back tears at the idea that she was, yet again, pregnant by a man she wasn't married to.

"Ariadne?" came a deep voice from the bedroom.

She turned to see Arthur awake and calling to her. "Come back to bed." he demanded gently.

She didn't know what else to do, so she went to him.

"You look so beautiful." he whispered as she didn't bother to put a robe on and arrived to him naked.

"Do I?" she asked nervously.

"Course you do." he laughed and kissed her.

She cleared her throat.

"Arthur, you know... you know that Fredrick and I... we... um..." she stuttered.

"We don't have to talk about Fredrick. He's gone and I'll be there for the boy." Arthur said.

"No, it's not that." she said feel her cheeks heat up.

"What is it?" he said and kissed her sweetly before rolling on top of her again. His manhood becoming hard again.

"We... we were married and... we... we were together." she said at last.

"I figured you would be." he said sadly. "I'm not mad about it."

Ariadne braced herself to tell another lie.

"We were together a few times before he died, and... I think I might..." she felt tears sting her eyes.

"You think you might have had good news for him, if he had lived." Arthur finished for him.

She choked back a sob and nodded.

'_It's a lie, Arthur. But please believe the lie. Please believe it and never doubt it. You can forgive me for Fredrick's baby, but not Eames'._' she thought as he looked her over calmly.

"You're pregnant?" he asked.

"All the signs are there. I'm not sure, but all the signs are there." she said and let out another sob.

"Shh." he said and kissed her forehead.

"I'm sorry." she said. Developing the lie more quickly. "I left England because I wanted a new life for us."

"We can have a new life." he told her. "We wanted another child, remember?"

"We wanted _your_ child." she reminded him.

"Well... life had other plans, didn't it?" he said. "Maybe I can't give you babies. We tried for a long time and nothing, remember? Maybe there is something wrong with me."

She wiped her tears away like a child would.

"You're not mad?" she whispered as their eyes met. "I'm carrying another man's baby again."

"I can't change the past, Ariadne." he told her. "We need to get you to a doctor and have him examine you. I don't want what happened to Mal to happen to you."

"I want to have it." she told him. "Even if Fredrick, the father is gone, I want the baby." she told him. The lie becoming more real.

"We will." he told her softly.

"Some women, they make themselves lose a baby." she whispered fearfully.

"That won't happen. I'll be there with you." he assured her and she started to sob in his arms.

~ "Did you mean what you told me before?" Ariadne asked as they sat in the doctor's neat little office.

Mal's tragic and sudden death had made Arthur almost drag his future bride to the doctor's office for a thorough examination.

"About what, Madam?" he asked irritatedly as he ran a finger over a cabinet to examine it for dust.

"About not being so cruel to your workers." she asked.

"I am hardly cruel to them." he told her as he sat down nervously beside her.

"The papers say otherwise." she said scathingly as they waited for the doctor to see them.

Arthur looked irritated.

"I'm not sure why I have to explain myself on this matter so often. I do not force those in my employ to work for me. I have a line around the block every week for new workers. I work them long hours because they want the money." he explained.

"Because you don't pay them enough." she snapped.

"I'm not going to argue with you while you're in a delicate condition, madam." he told her.

"So you're not going to be fair to your workers. That was just a trick to get me to fall in love with you again." she accused.

"It wasn't a trick, madam. I have every intention of relaxing some of the hours and conditions when the war is over. Until then, my factories bring too much money into the local economy and helps immigrants live." he explained.

"So, when the war ends, you'll pay them more? I doubt that, Arthur." she laughed.

"I don't care what you doubt, madam." he snorted.

"I can't help but feel Mr. Rockefeller would agree with me." she told him.

Her convenient husband gave her a hard look. She had stuck a nerve.

"So would Mr. Ford." she added as an after thought.

"Mr. Ford and I are no longer on speaking terms." he told her stiffly.

"Oh?" she asked. "Why not? You liked how he did business. He pays his workers very fair wages."

"He made some anti-semitic statements at a luncheon a year ago I didn't appreciate." he said.

"Oh." Ariadne said and felt a slight sadness for Arthur.

She was about to say something when the couple was interrupted by the expensive doctor Arthur had taken her to.

"Well, Mrs. Bradford." the doctor said looking pleased at the couple. "After an examination, and I can tell you that you will have a new edition at the end of the summer."

Ariadne couldn't help but smile as she felt Arthur's large hands take hers. He looked especially pleased as the doctor congratulated him and they shook hands.

"We had a friend die in child birth along with the baby, is there any chance that could happen?" Ariadne asked worriedly.

"Well, I don't know the circumstances around that. But you're very young and you've already had a child safely." he told them.

"She almost died having our daughter." Arthur said bitterly.

"Your wife tells me that was a home birth. I think you would both benefit from delivery in the hospital." the doctor said.

They looked at him curiously.

"Have the baby in the hospital?" Arthur questioned.

"A lot of mothers are doing it." the doctor offered. "Midwives are never as experienced as a doctor and team of nurses."

"People go to hospitals to die." Ariadne told him. Her eyes wide with shock at the idea.

"They go to the hospital to get better these days." the doctor told them. "Think about it. In the mean time, watch what you eat and get plenty of rest. Stay away from stress."

He looked at Arthur.

"You'll be in charge of keeping your wife content through the pregnancy. That way, there will be no complications." he said with a little smile.

~ "A baby born in a hospital." Arthur grumbled. "Welcome to the modern age."

"A_ doctor_ delivering a baby." Ariadne scoffed. "A man. Not a midwife. A man who's undoubtedly only seen his own wife... down there."

"Don't worry, we won't go to a hospital. Olivia was born at home with a midwife and so will this child." Arthur assured her.

"Arthur, are you sure about this?" she asked him as he drove down the busy street that still catered to horses and trolly cars.

"Sure about what?" he grumbled as he scowled at the traffic.

"About being a father to Harold and this new baby. You'll have three children. None of them will be yours." she said in a sad voice.

"Why do you keep insisting Olivia isn't mine?" he growled. "As if I wasn't around for her birth."

"Arthur, you know what I mean." she said.

"I'll have you. I'll have my wife back. You weren't unfaithful to conceive this child. You're not the type of woman to cheat on her husband." he reasoned. "We can work this all out." he promised.

He shouted at a heavily weighted down cart to moved off the street and never saw the look of worry in her eyes.


	12. Chapter 12

3.

~ "Harold, when you're old enough, you'll come with to the office with me, and I can show you how to run a business." Arthur told the young boy who looked at him adoringly.

Arthur was seated at a desk, a litter of papers around him as Harold helped him arrange them.

"Will I run factories like you?" Harold asked hopefully.

"Not like Arthur, you'll be a lot better." Ariadne told him as she combed out Olivia's hair.

"Don't listen to you're mother. If she ran things, we would be bankrupt from giving people money for doing nothing." Arthur told the boy. "The first things you need to know about business is supply and demand. It always needs to be in a balance. If something is not a good investment, do not invest in it. Never spend money on something that offers a poor return."

"Arthur, I think he's bit too young for this." Ariadne sighed as Olivia squirmed out of her grasp and demanded to be put down.

"Nonsense." Arthur said. "Perfect example, Harold. I am willing to spend a lot of money on clothing and dresses for your lovely mother. Some might feel this is a frivolous expense, but a woman like your mother makes a man like me look very good."

Ariadne rolled her eyes as Harold gave her a little grin.

"Missus, you have a telegram." Maura said as she intruded on the family time.

"Harold, don't listen too much about business. I would like you to be a nice doctor and help people." she told the boy.

"Don't fill the boys head up with nonsense." Arthur scoffed as he watched his wife leave.

"Now, when we talk about price and expense, always use real dollars. Never use percentages or adjustments, and never trust anyone who is unwilling to give you an estimate in real dollars." Arthur went on.

"What's a percentage?" the boy asked.

~ Ariadne tried to not to feel too happy Arthur had such a good relationship with Harold. Her convenient husband had come by Cobb's home every day to see her and the children as well as Mr. Cobb. They hadn't told their friend that they planned to re-marry or that she was pregnant. Mal had passed just a few weeks ago and the house was still in mourning.

She intended to stick by the lie that it was Fredrick's baby till her dieing day. Then take her secret to the grave. Arthur seemed willing to accept a child that was Fredrick's. He would hate her forever if he knew it's true paternity.

She looked over the Western Union envelope and saw the return address was from Blue Rivers.

'_Eames_'. She thought worriedly.

She swallowed hard and ripped open the envelope. Bracing herself to read the hate her former lover had for her.

**Ariadne.**

**Please respond to this telegram. **

**Our mutual friend, Mr. C. R. Eames had found himself once more in my hospital. **

**I was not able to convince his mother to come collect him. **

**He is very ill and needs care after a suicide attempt last week.**

**He will have a court date as soon as he is well enough.**

**Please, come and make a plea on his behalf.**

**The judge may excuse him if you testify. **

**Regards,**

**Robert Fischer**

**Fischer Charity Hospital**

Ariadne was breathing hard as she tried not to become ill. Her morning sickness starting for this child starting earlier than with Olivia.

Eames was back at Fischer's hospital. He had tried to kill himself? Juniper wasn't coming to help him? This was all her fault. She should have never left. He most likely did this because she had left him. Eames was always emotional and with her sudden departure...

~ "Are you to be our new father?" Harold asked Arthur as the boy sat on his knee and Olivia glowered at the both of them. She wasn't completely sold on Arthur, but she certainly didn't want to share him with the likes of Harold.

"It seems so." Arthur said with a laugh.

"I'm glad." Harold told him.

"Are you now?"

"Yes, I was worried that Mr. Eames would be our new father. Mother always spent time with him while my real papa was at the war." Harold said.

Arthur made a face.

"How long was your father away at war, son?" Arthur asked.

"He left over a year ago just after he married mother. He never came back home till after he died."

"Did Mr. Eames come home?"

"Oh yes, sir. He and mother were always in her rooms. Maura told us we were not to bother them." Harold said. "Mr. Eames is a fine gentleman, and a war hero, but he didn't seem to have time for us. He was always wanting to be around mother."

"I see." Arthur said.

"I'm very glad you're to be our new father and we're to live with you and learn about business. I think I should like to be a businessman." Harold said.

"You shall be a businessman. You're sister to." Arthur told him grumpily.

His was mind working quickly.

A click of the door and Ariadne had come back in the room.

"Hello, madam." Arthur said as he moved Harold off his knee. "Son, take your sister and go play. I need to speak to mother alone."

"Yes, sir." Harold said and took Olivia's hand. The two children leaving the adults as soon as they got their kisses from Ariadne.

Arthur looked at his convenient wife skeptically.

"Are you alright, Madam?" he asked taking in how scared and upset she looked.

"No, something serious has happened." Ariadne told him.

"Indeed." Arthur said darkly.

"Eames, he came home from the war... he's at Fischer's hospital after a suicide attempt." she told him.

"Fischer hospital?"

"Yes, just after you left for New York, I collected him from the hospital. He almost drank himself to death." she told him.

"How fortunate you were there." Arthur said.

"Arthur, please, none of your loathing for your cousin just now. His mother isn't responding to Fischer's calls and suicide is a real crime in England. I have to go and retrieve him." she told him.

"Eames seems intent on destroying himself. Who are we to interfere?" Arthur said coldly.

"Arthur!" she snapped.

"I had the most interesting talk with Harold just now." Arthur said. "He told me how Fredrick hadn't been home from the war in over a year. That Mr. Eames came home, and you spent a lot of time with him."

His next words were in a very dangerous tone.

"_In your rooms_."

Ariadne blinked.

"Fredrick came home a few months before he died. He was wounded and didn't want Harold to see him." Ariadne told him.

"So, you hid him from his son?" Arthur questioned.

"Yes."

"You were intimate with a wounded man?" he asked doubtfully.

"With my husband." Ariadne said coldly.

"I see."

"It's the truth." she insisted. "Fredrick was home."

"And Eames was in your rooms. If I ask Maura, will she tell me how she kept the children out so you could be with your lover?" he growled.

She couldn't think.

'_God, he knows._' she thought.

"Go to England." he said and stood. "Go rescue the man you love. If you want Eames over me, I won't stand in your way. That's his child inside you, isn't it"

His voice looked disgusted at her as his eyes turned cruel.

"If you leave me for that rouge, madam. Do not expect to be welcomed back. No more money, not even support for Olivia. You've wounded me through the heart, madam." he growled.

"_I've_ wounded _you_?" she said in a whispered voice. "Do you have any idea what I've gone through in the past few years? Believing you were dead. Marrying a man to save myself from total destitution. Fredrick didn't even care for me, he wanted someone to look after Harold. Then to have Fredrick come home from the war a cripple and blind. To have to drain his wounds every day. To hear him scream in pain because the morphine wasn't working anymore? To know I would bury him to? Of course I needed Eames. I needed him to love me. I was alone in another country and he was there for me."

"Yes, I'm sure he was. He was always there for you, wasn't he?" Arthur said in a deep, angry voice.

"Stop it!" she cried.

"Go back to your lover. Olivia stays with me. Harold to if that is the kind of life you would expose them to." he said hotly.

"You will not be taking my children away from me, Arthur." she told him.

"I will if their mother want's to run off with a degenerate drunk. Any judge would give me custody." he said arrogantly.

She stood up. She was no longer the scared desperate girl she had been when she had married him. She was no longer his convenient wife.

"I think we've said all we need to." she told him coldly. "I'm taking my children back with me to England to help my friend and your cousin. You can sue for custody, but you will fail. All I have to do is explain how Olivia isn't yours and we lied about our marriage."

"Ariadne." Arthur said. His voice an icy warning.

"Goodbye, sir." she whispered and didn't look back.


	13. Chapter 13

4.

~ Cobb gave Arthur a doubtful look.

"So, you want to gain custody of Olivia and Harold from the woman you abandoned and then divorced?" he asked skeptically.

The death of his beloved Mal had made the creases on his forehead deeper and he looked as if he hadn't been sleeping well.

"Yes. Ariadne intends on returning to England to be with Mr. Eames. I don't want my daughter or the boy exposed to his drunkenness." Arthur said. The businessman full of his own self righteousness as he sat across form his lawyer and friend.

"Arthur," Cobb sighed. "by the letter of the law, you won't win. You left your wife, you were in a metal health facility, jail and you abandoned your family and divorced her by mail. She has since remarried, and become a widow again. No judge will grant you custody just because you don't like the man she want's to be with."

Cobb shook his head as Arthur started to argue.

"Let her be with Eames. You had your chance to go back to her." Cobb reasoned.

"Eames is a drunk who is in a charity hospital after a suicide attempt!" Arthur exclaimed.

"You were a drunk who was in jail after a bar brawl. What makes you any more qualified to be with her?" Cobb pointed out. "Also, she's carrying his child. She admitted that to you herself."

"Cobb." Arthur fumed.

"You want to keep Ariadne here. You like having her as your wife, I get that, but you shouldn't have divorced her. I begged you not to, you have only yourself to blame." Cobb said.

"You're not going to help me?" Arthur asked.

"I don't think I can be your lawyer any longer." Cobb said sadly.

"You're not just my lawyer." Arthur told him. "We've always been my friend."

"And you've never listened to me as a friend. The only advice you ever took was to marry Ariadne."

"Cobb, I can't win custody of my daughter without your help." Arthur said.

"You won't win in any case. If your ex-wife wishes to go back to England, you can't stop her." Cobb told him.

~ "Arthur, I don't need this." Ariadne said as she looked over the thick envelope he gave her.

They were waiting to be boarded on the ship to England. Harold and Olivia were holding hands as they looked skeptically at the large ship.

No doubt they remembered the odyssey of their first voyage.

Ariadne was surprised to find Arthur was willing to drive her to the docks to see her off. Handing her a thick envelope full of money.

"It's for you and the children's expenses. I doubt Mr. Eames will provide for you in London. I don't want you living in squarer." Arthur said.

"Arthur, I have money from Fredrick's estate." Ariadne said. Trying to be kind about her rejection of his money.

"Take it." Arthur insisted.

"Arthur." she sighed.

"Please, I would feel better knowing you and the children were provided for, just take it." he said growing irritated.

The ship gave off a loud whistle as the first class passengers started to board.

"You didn't have to pay for our tickets." Ariadne told him as Maura took the children up the walk and Ariadne stayed behind with Arthur.

"It's a round trip ticket for the four of you. You can come home at anytime." he told as they avoided looking at one another.

"Thank you." she whispered.

"Ariadne." he said and swallowed hard. "You don't have to go back to him. We both know he will break your heart. Stay with me."

"Arthur, he needs my help right now." she told him as her convenient husband refused to look at her.

She examined his handsome profile for the last time. His scowl detracting from how pleasing his face could be when he was happy.

"I'm sorry, Arthur." she said at last as she went to follow Maura and the children.

She felt his strong hand take hers and she turned to meet his eyes.

"Please, stay. I don't care if Eames is the father. Don't take Olivia away from me. Don't leave me alone." he whispered.

Her body itched to rush into his arms. Wanted the ease and comfort Arthur had always provided. With Eames, who knows what kind of a life she was taking herself and their children into. But she had to go. Had to save him from himself. He had hurt himself because of her and she needed to put it right once more.

"I can't." she told him.

"You love him?" Arthur accused. "You love him more than me?" he asked fitfully.

"I love him." she said at last.

~ The voyage back to England was much smoother than the their trip to New York. Arthur had, as always, provided well for them in a first class cabin that meant they traveled in extreme comfort.

"Missus, It's not my place to say this." Maura said as she helped Ariadne fix her long hair in a fashionable style for dinner. "But I thought we were leaving England to get away from Mr. Eames and his influences."

"You're right, Maura. But he needs my help just now." Ariadne sighed.

"Harold is none to pleased to be leaving your mister." Maura told her. "The boy and Lord Bradford got on real well as far as I could see. Like father and son already."

Ariadne smiled softly.

"Harold says he wants to be a businessman like Lord Bradford so he can have a pretty wife one day." Maura told her and both women laughed.

"Maura, life hasn't exactly turned out the way I had hoped." Ariadne admitted sadly. "In a perfect world, Arthur would have come home after the sinking of the _Empress_ and we would have gone to America together. But we never know what changes life will bring us."

"Will you be telling Mr. Eames about the baby? Or about Lord Arthur still being alive?" Maura asked.

Ariadne shook her head. Maura, one of her oldest and closest friends since her hasty marriage to Arthur, knew things about her, but kept them secret. She no doubt knew all about her and Eames long before anyone else.

"I'll have to see what kind of condition he's in." she told her maid. "He might not think a baby is especially good news. Mr. Eames and Lord Bradford were decidedly different."

~ London had changed since the start of the war. It had become much more modern. Cars were everywhere now and they drove recklessly down the historic streets and bridges and scared the horses who had to share a road with them.

White Chapel had even undergone a face lift. So many of the old, rat infested flats were torn down and new building were going up.

The streets were starting to look cleaner and there was less of the hopelessness about the area now.

"So good to see you, Mrs. Bradford." Mr. Fischer said and met Ariadne at the door of his hospital.

"It's Mrs. Hays now." she corrected him as she noticed Fisher had gotten thinner.

"Oh, yes. My apologies." Fischer said and gave her a bow.

"How is Eames?" she asked as she paid her cab driver and followed Fisher into his hospital.

She noticed the over crowding in the hospital was worse now. Men were sitting in the halls and looking ill and filthy. Many of them were very young.

"The war." Fischer said as she followed him to the same ward Eames stayed in last time. "It's sent us men back with addiction to morphine, and with something the doctors call shell shock."

"I think Eames had that." Ariadne told him.

"It gets worse when he drinks." Fischer told her. "We've been trying to detox him, but after he shot himself-"

"Oh, God!" Ariadne exclaimed.

"He'll be fine." Fischer told her. "Bullet grazed his head and gave him a flesh wound. He claims it was an accident, but I've seen many men make a suicide attempt since the war started. They all look like our Mr. Eames."

"He'll have to go to court?" she asked.

"They will take into account he's a war hero. But it will be better if he has family to go home to and care for him." he said.

"His mother? Why won't she come?" Ariadne asked bitterly.

"Apparently she tired to help him, and he refused. Now, she seems to have disowned him." Fischer told her. "I was lead to believe there is a financial concern as well."

"I'm sure." Ariadne grumbled as they reached the end of the ward and she caught her breath at the sight of Eames.


	14. Chapter 14

_~ Part XI ~_

_ ~ The Eye ~_

1.

~ Ariadne tried not to show the horror she felt bubble up inside her at seeing her dearest friend like this. Not when he came home for war, or was in Fischer's hospital the first time, had he looked so near death. His skin was gray and he was struggling to breath in his sleep. A white bandage covered his left check and side of his head from his fail suicide attempt.

"Like I said, the bullet gave him a flesh wound, but it's still very serious." Fischer told her as he delicately removed the dressing and she saw the deep wound to his face. Eames would have a very recognizable scar on his face for the rest of his life. A reminder of what he had done to himself in his own selfish grief.

Her friend stirred and didn't open his eyes.

"Go away, go away, go away." he muttered like a child who had thrown a temper tantrum so hard, he was now too tired to grow angry again.

"Mr. Eames?" Fisher said leaning down to speak into Eames ear. "I have a visitor for you."

"No... no one... no..." Eames muttered and shook his head. His eyes half closed as he didn't even look at her.

"Sir, it's Ariadne." Fischer said.

"Eames, open your eyes." Ariadne said harshly. Her tone was the same she used when Olivia or Harold were doing something bad and refused to listen to her.

Childlike, Eames opened his eyes to see her as if for the first time.

He squinted and peered at her, his mind foggy and confused.

"No..." he groaned. "Go away, go away, go away." he muttered and closed his eyes again.

"He refused food and wants to sleep all day." Fischer told her sadly. "It's not unlike the other men come home from the war. We may have to put a feeding tube in him if he continues."

"That won't be necessary." Ariadne sighed as she looked Eames over. "I'll be taking him home now."

"Home?" Fischer repeated.

"Back to Blue Rivers, sir." she said as if her had lost his mind.

"Ma'am, didn't you hear?" he asked looking embarrass.

"Hear what?"

"There was a fire, Blue Rivers is gone." he told her.

~ "Not wholly gone." He clarified when they were in his office for tea. "But the main house, the library most of the downstairs rooms are lost."

"What happened?" she asked in shock. A house a beautiful and grand as Blue Rivers was gone? How could such a thing happen?

"It would seem the fire was started in the conservatory; it spread quickly. No one is sure of the cause, but Mr. Eames was last seen in the conservatory that evening. After the fire, he disappeared for a few weeks, wound up here from the suicide attempt." he explained.

"Was anyone hurt?" Ariadne sighed.

"I'm afraid Lady Percy and the elderly butler were not able to make it out." Fischer told her.

"Miles?" Ariadne gasped and tried not to cry. The older man had been nothing but kind to her and Arthur since they arrived.

Lady Percy was gone as well, her illness giving her borrowed time to perish in a fire. In the end, despite how horrible she could be, Ariadne had forgiven her and learned to trust the older woman more than anyone.

"The house can still be rebuilt, but the family lacks the funds to do it. I'm afraid there was some frivolous spending on behalf of Juniper Eames." Fischer said.

"I'll bet there has." Ariadne sighed. All those expensive, pretty clothes, silly hats and jewelry for a woman who only cared about how she appeared. Naturally whatever income her son provided, could never be enough.

"After the funerals, Mrs. Eames left the country, a lot of rumors are going around about debts in Paris she owed as well. I tried to reach her in India, but no response." the thin young man told her.

"Well, I'm here now. My late husband, Mr. Hays, left me a house in Town and I can take Mr. Eames there." she told him.

"Mrs. Hays," Fischer sighed. "May I be honest with you?"

"Of course." Ariadne said.

"Perhaps Mr. Eames needs more help than you can give. I've been working with people who are developing real treatments for what were call alcoholism." he said.

"Alcoholism?" she questioned.

"Yes, it's an addiction. Like the morphine addictions we see in the returning men." Fischer explained.

"You can't be addicted to alcohol." she laughed. "Everyone drinks."

"You friend is proof you can become an addict. His body went through terrible withdraws, same as any addict I've ever seen." Fischer told her.

Ariadne shook her head.

'_Addiction to the drink, babies born in hospitals, what next?_' she thought.

"What to do suggest?" she asked instead.

"Allow him to go into treatment with the group. It's lead by a specialized doctor who can help him. He can't just slow his drinking down. He must give it up. He must start a new life of sobriety."

"But people drink everywhere." she told him.

"Well, he can't." Fischer said logically.

"I'll try and convince him." she said.

"Mrs. Hays, are you and Mr. Eames... are you more that friends?" Fischer asked.

"Good day, sir." she snapped at him and stood. She didn't want to explain herself to Fischer.

"I only ask because we found papers, notebooks, all of them dedicated to you." Fischer said. "You were all he cried out for during his illness before."

"Good day, sir." Ariadne fumed as she left his office.

**Sorry I have not been updating like before. My new job is going well, but I don't have the downtime I used to and it's harder to post everyday. It's also harder to find the time to read, which is tragic!**

**I'm working on more stories; more erotica. There is one that many may find taboo, but is very interesting anyway.**

**How adorable was JGL, Seth McFarland and Dan Radcliffe at the Oscars? Can't not understand why "Life of Pi" didn't win best picture. Bull Shit!**


	15. Chapter 15

2.

~ Eames was trapped in dreams. He remembered the terrible detox and DT he went through at Fischer's hospital, after that, his body felt so sick and useless, he thought he would die.

How had he survived so much, come so close to happiness with the only woman he ever loved, to have it all slip away from him?

His dreams were foggy images of the war, the manor house on fire, Ariadne... always there was Ariadne.

His dreams shifted and he felt her presence. Telling him to open his eyes. No, she was gone. She couldn't be here. His great love had fled from him back to her homeland. She didn't want him, wanted nothing to do with him. She had sent him a telegram and told him not to worry.

She didn't love him. He had been fooling himself thinking she might have cared for him at all.

After the funereal, Eames waited and waited for her to come back to the house. He even took a car and drove back to the solitary little graveyard.

It was cold out and he worried about her and the children. Maybe Ariadne did love Fredrick in her own way. But she would love him now, There was nothing to stop them from being together now. He would have the woman he had always wanted. He would be happy, he would be free.

The graveyard was dark and empty, as only the dead lived there.

Ariadne and the children were gone. He had feared she might have been kidnapped by a band of gypsies on the high road. A pretty woman and two small children? He feared the worst and had the constable alerted.

Maura had vanished to. Miles telling him how her room was empty. Eames searched Ariadne's bedroom and found all her things were gone as well.

He telegraphed Cobb. He knew his lover had gone to America. Why, he wasn't sure, but he knew in his bones, that she had left him for America and Cobb would take her in.

Cobb hand sent word back he had no idea where Ariadne was.

Eames became frantic with worry. Maybe she was kidnapped, maybe she was in London or Paris even.

Finally, the night of the fire, Eames received word from Ariadne. A short, hurtful note saying she was alright and in America. Not to worry about her and not to come after her.

Filled with a dark, swirling hatred, Eames had fled to his conservatory and locked himself in. Like the hunchback bell ringer, he cloistered himself there and refused to leave. Even sleeping in the little sitting room.

He brooded and wallowed in his own self pity until the smell of smoke laced into his sleep and woke him.

The conservatory was a blaze and he was trapped. Acting only on instinct, He managed to escape out the back way and took the forgotten walking paths to the village.

After that, is was easy to forget everything. The village was absorbed in the fire of Blue Rivers and no noticed he had slipped away.

He had no idea how the fire started, only it surely began in the conservatory while he was sleeping.

He left the village and walked for days with only the money that was in his pockets. He did work on farms. No one knowing who he was. He read in the papers about Aunt Percy and Miles dying in the fire. That he was wanted for questioning. He grew a beard out, the kind his lover hated, and no one recognized him.

Like Moses in the desert, he wandered and finally found himself in London. In the White Chapel district once more, rented a small room, found work, and at night, he wrote. His word poured out of him like infection from a wound. The thing was painful and cathartic at the same time. His love for Ariadne had morphed into hatred. She had wounded him like she had no heart. He wrote stories of a great witch who tempted a knight, fresh from the crusades, and was unfortunate enough to fall in her web.

Late at night, instead of drinking, or trying to contact his mother, he wrote these stories to entertain himself. During the day, he worked in drudge like jobs with other men. Men who were foul creatures and he watched them. The observations becoming new stories for him with those men as monsters or gargoyles. The witch, always there was the witch to torment him at night.

Then, the pain was gone. His pen had run out of ink and his stories were completed.

He started at the last page, the spell had been broken, the witch was cast out and in her place, was the beautiful young girl that had been possessed by her.

The knight took the maiden home and made her his bride, never telling her how much he really loved the witch that had dwelt inside her.

He carefully wrapped up the thick manuscript in a large piece of thin leather and tucked it into his jacket.

It was only a few days later, he bought the service revolver off a infantry man who needed money.

He wasn't sure why he bought it, but he liked having it around. He like to sleep with it close by and feel the cold metal when he woke up from dreaming of her.

His cold creeping self pity rose up once more and made his heart hurt. He started drinking again. He couldn't seem to stop this time. When he normally spent his evenings writing, he now spent them drinking and fighting.

Prostitutes would offer him their services, but sex seemed to sicken him now. His lover made him unfit to be with other women and his body ached for her now.

He was drinking more and more when a terrible thought entered his head.

'_I could kill myself._' he realized. '_Then, I won't have to feel this way any longer._'

He realized then, that he bought the side arm for that purpose. He always knew he was going to use it to take his life.

He wrote a long, boring suicide note to Ariadne, cursing her and blaming her. He burned it and made do with no letter; no apologies.

It was near midnight and the boarding house was still. His room was dark, except for the moonlight. He cradled the gun in his hands and worked up the courage to do the thing.

His cold self hatred burned him and he put the gun to his head, and quickly pulled the trigger.

Perhaps it was instinct that made his head dart away, but he moved and felt the painful burning of the bullet rip across his face and the sound of the gun so close defended him.

He didn't realize there would be so much blood as he sat looking at the warm, sticky redness covering his shirt.

His hand went to his face and he realized then he was still alive, but wounded.

The shock of seeing his own blood, made him pass out. When he woke, he was in Fisher's hospital going through horrible withdrawals and screaming for Ariadne.

Then, his body was too tired to do anything more than sleep. All he wanted to to was sleep. He dreamed of Ariadne. Of swimming naked with her in the pond. Of her glorious nude body surrounded by nature as she undressed shyly and told him not to watch.

Of her nursing Olivia, of her telling him she never wanted to see him again. Of her coming to save him and bathing him. Ariadne in her widow's veil, Ariadne writing with him, Ariadne in those modern slacks, Ariadne on her wedding day to Fredrick. Finally, Ariadne as his lover. Her pale, soft body under his. The way her face looked when he entered her and how he delighted her with his oh so sinful needs.

How they escaped Blue Rivers to be together, like the illicit lovers they were.

Then, fire, fire, misery, walking, cold, loneliness, writing, work, loneliness, writing and work.

His dreams felt so real, he swore he could hear her voice. Her confident voice giving instructions to the servants and even Maura's frightened voice as well.

He almost opened his eyes, but sleep took him back again.

Then, one fine day, he woke up.

His body was done with sleeping and was now rested.

He opened his eyes to find himself in a strange room he had never been in before. This was not blue Rivers. Nor, was it the boarding house or Fischer's Hospital. He had never been here before.

"You're awake." came a voice and he turned to see a woman sitting in a rocking chair.

He didn't recognize her right away. His eyes were still unfocused from sleeping too long. He thought she looked familiar but he couldn't give her a name.

What he did see was his manuscript in her hands. She was reading it.

She carefully re-wrapped the pages in it's piece of leather and tied to together again.

"Where did you get that? That's mine." he growled but lacked the energy to even sit up.

"I know it's yours, Eames. It's very good. The best you've ever done I think." The strange woman told him.

"Stay out of my things." he whispered before falling asleep again.

"Eames, stay awake." she said and he forced himself to open his eyes again.

"Stay awake. Stay with me." she said.

He felt her sit on the edge of his bed and he got a good look at her.

Ariadne, his great love looked back at him. Her doe like eyes full of worry and concern.


	16. Chapter 16

3.

~ Ariadne was worried about the way Eames would breath in his sleep. The heavy breathing troubled her because he knew he never breathed like that when he slept before. When they were together, his breathing was light and peaceful.

He would do nothing but sleep these days. She sat in a little rocking chair beside the window and read as he dreamed. While bringing him home, she had found a tightly wrapped and folded manuscript tucked carefully in his dirty jacket.

She was stunned to see it was his writing, yet something about it was different. His words were powerful and beautiful all at once. It told a tragic story of a girl possessed by a witch. Forced to torment a good knight with her evil ways. It was his best work by far.

Eames slept the sleep of the dead and, late at night, she would stay in his room and type out his manuscript. She added to his story a little. Correcting the long running sentences he was fond of using. The man would have long thoughts that would stretch out for paragraphs without breaks; it drove her to madness.

He would sleep and breath deeply and never woke from the clacking of the typewriter keys.

The house Fredrick had left her was small, but cozy. Olivia and Harold had to share a room and Maura, along with the housekeeper, and man of all work, were the only servants needed. The guest room where Eames slept was comfortable and over looked a lovely set of trees.

How they hand managed to get him upstairs, she had no idea. Eames still had the limp and required his cane. His face was healing well from his attack on himself, but the scar would be there forever.

He would wake up and eat a little. His thoughts disjointed as he asked her what happened and then tell her to go away.

"Eames, I'm not leaving you." she assured him.

He seemed to grow very tired and would fall asleep again. Blocking her out.

Ariadne finally finished typing his masterpiece and sent it to his editor the next morning. She was delighted to receive a phone call a few days later. The editor thrilled with it and wanted to pay Eames to write another.

Ariadne had to explain to the man that Mr. Eames was very ill.

"Well, that won't suit, Mrs. Hays. The readers will want another book from this man as soon as possible. Serials are all the rage now. You know, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series. This could be a fantastic series and highly profitable to." the man said.

"When my friend has recovered, I'll be sure to tell him that, sir." Ariadne said stiffly.

~ In his little room, she listened to him breathing. Her eyes going over his words in his hand written manuscript. It wasn't hard to know she was the inspiration for the witch and himself the gallant knight for whom she torments.

She tried not to feel too hurt by this literary slander, but she couldn't help but feel the sting of it.

Eames' breathing had changed. He was waking up.

"What are you doing with that?" he said hostility as she looked up from his work. She had read and typed it out all these weeks, she had the thing memorized now.

She sighed as her friend was awake and up to his old hateful ways.

"You're awake." she said and carefully re-wrapped his manuscript in the leather.

"Where did you get that? That's mine." he hissed from his bed. His face and body too weak to be a threat.

"I know it's yours, Eames. It's very good. The best you've ever done I think."  
"Stay out of my things." he warned. His eyes were rolling in the back of his head.

"Stay awake." she said and went to sit at his bed side. "Eames, stay with me."

He opened his eyes again. It looked like it was hard work for him.

"Why am I so tired?" he whined up at her.

"The doctor says you're anemic. Most likely got it in the trenches and your lifestyle didn't help. You're lawyer says no charges will be pressed against you because you've been so sick." she said and adjusted his covering.

"Charges?"

"For the suicide attempt." she told him.

"What?" his hand went to his face. He obviously had forgotten. Forgotten about trying to shot himself in the head and missing. His hand went to the left side of his face; feeling the roughness of his wound that was slowly healing.

"It will scar, but you'll live." she whispered.

"What are you doing here?" he growled at her. His eyes

She laughed. She couldn't help it. Part of her expected her former lover to rejoice at seeing her again. She had left everything to care for him. Left her dependable Arthur back in New York, turned her children's lives upside down more than once in the past few months, and all she was given in return was 'what are you ding here?'.

"I'm here to take care of you, Eames." she told him and poured him a fresh glass of water from the table.

"I don't need help. Go back to where you were." he huffed.

"Eames." she said in a warning voice. "You've been talking nonsensical for weeks now. It's time to stop."

He glared at her. The same way Olivia would when she didn't get what she wanted.

"Stay out of my things." he pouted. "That writing is not for you to read."

"Too late for that." she said smartly. "I've read it, typed it up and sent it to you editor. He's already requested a second book and you'll be getting some forms to sign for publication."

"What? You did _what_?" he growled and managed to sit up in bed.

"You heard me." she teased. "Are you hungry? You haven't been eating very much since I came to get you. I can get you something to eat."

"No, I'm not hungry. You sent my story to my editor?" he barked at her.

"Yes." she said plainly.

"You had no right."

"I know. Just as you had no right to try and kill yourself." she told him and brought him a glass of water.

He had the decency to look ashamed of himself.

"I was... I wasn't well." he admitted.

Ariadne fought the urge to roll her eyes. The irony of Arthur's words coming back to her.

"Well, you're on the mends now." she told him as he drank his water.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"Fredrick's house in Town." she said and went back to her rocking chair.

"Oh." was all he said.

"We couldn't very well go back to Blue Rivers now could we?" she said with a smile.

"I didn't do it." he told her.

"Do what?"

"I didn't start that fire. I didn't kill my Aunt Percy or Miles."

"I never said you did." she said and picked up some white yarn to knit a baby blanket. "No one is saying you did, Eames."

"My mother..." he whispered and looked sad. "Is she here?"

"No, we think she's in France or India." Ariadne told him.

Eames was silent.

"It's not your fault, Eames." she whispered.

"No, it's yours." he accused.

"Mine?" she gasped. The feel of a silly school yard fight about to break out between them.

"Yes. If you hadn't left me, none of this would have happened."

"Eames, stop being ridiculous." she scoffed and went back to her knitting.

"I'm ridiculous, am I? That's why you left me, isn't it?" he accused and looked ready to cry.

"Eames, stop it." she said sharply. "I left because my husband wasn't even dead and I was having an affair with you instead of being a good wife and mother. I left you because I wanted a new life and frankly we can_ both_ do better."

"No we can't. We make each other miserable and we deserve each other." he restored.

Ariadne tried not to laugh. She couldn't stop a little smile coming to her face as she dropped a stitch.

"How long have you been back?" he asked.

"A little over a month now." she said calmly. "We got you from Fischer's hospital and you've been nonsensical till now."

"What was I saying?" he asked.

"Telling me to go away." she sighed and finished a row.

"Why didn't you just leave me?" he pouted. "Let me die?"

"Because I love you. Not sure why, but I do."

"You wouldn't have left me if you loved me."

"I left you because I loved you and was afraid it wasn't good for me." she whispered and looked over her stitching.

"Hmm." Eames said and finished drinking his water.

She could feel him looking at her and tried not to blush.

"I'm hungry." he announced.

"I'll go and have the housekeeper fix you something to eat." she said and put her knitting down.

"America was good to you, you look really nice." he said as he watched her stand up.

"Thank you." she told him stiffly.

"You must have been eating well, you've put on a little more weight." he observed. His tone indicating it to be a compliment as she felt his eyes raking over her body.

"I _have_ been eating well." she said and smoothed out her dress. Her hands careful not to brush over her enlarging belly. "But the weight gain is probably from the pregnancy." she told him and left the room before he could say anything.


	17. Chapter 17

4.

~ He was remarkably calm when she came back to his room with a light meal of beef broth and toast.

"When did it happen?" he asked as soon as she sat the tray on his lap.

"I'm four months along now." she told him as she sat the tray on his lap.

"We... I mean..." Eames looked like he didn't know what to say.

"It's yours." she told him. "Eat something."

"Did you know you were pregnant when you left me?" he asked as he nibbled his toast.

"No." she whispered.

"Would you still have left me if you knew?" he asked.

"I can't answer that. I came back because you needed me." she told him.

"Not because you're carrying my child." he said gruffly. "Would you have even told me if I hadn't fallen ill?"

"I'm not sure." she admitted.

Eames nodded and ate. He wasn't sure why he was so accepting about this news. Perhaps his mind hadn't really absorbed it yet. A father, he was going to be a father. His beloved would bear his offspring in less than five months and he would be a father. He would have a son who he could pass down all his knowledge to. He would have his family at long last.

"I've been telling people it's Fredrick's baby." she said suddenly.

"The hell you are." he barked. His face clearly insulted that she would try to pass of his child as another mans. "We both know it's mine. Or did you forget how busy we were? How occupied we stayed in your rooms?"

He was happy to see her face grow pink.

"I didn't forget. But I am unmarried, Eames. I'm pregnant and unmarried. I have to save face." she said.

"We'll get married. I wanted to marry you right after the funereal, remember?" he said.

"Eames, we're not good together." she said as he was suddenly starving.

He ate his toast a d drank his beef broth.

"I think we're very good together." he told her.

"No, we act like a pair of stupid kids when we're together. It's not the right kind of relationship to have a child in." she reasoned painfully.

He sat down his bowl.

"I love you." he told her.

She looked at her hands.

"Do you love me?" he asked.

"I do." she whispered.

"Then that's all we need."

"Eames, Mr. Fischer, the man who runs the charity hospital thinks you need to go into treatment for your drinking." she told him as the toast he ate now sat like a rock in his stomach.

"Treatment?" Eames laughed.

"Yes, he thinks you're addicted to drinking." she explained.

"Nonsense."

"I think he's right. Eames, I would like you to go to treatment. I think it would be good for you." she told him.

"If you don't want me to drink, I won't." he huffed.

"It's more than that. I want you to be more stable. We're going to be a family, if you're going to be a father to my child, you have to be there for us. No more running off when things get difficult." she told him bravely.

"Ah, you want another Arthur." Eames sulked.

She glared at him but said nothing.

"Eames." she said at last with a weary sigh. "I left you because you're so unreliable, and you always have been. You drink a lot, do stupid things and, when you have to face the music, you leave. I can't let you into our lives again if you're just going to leave us. This is the last time I'm picking you up at the charity hospital. The last time I'm nursing you back to health. Do it again, you'll never see me or your child." she threatened.

"I won't drink anymore." he said at quickly. "I'll... I'll stay in one place. Whatever you need."

~_ Ariadne,_

_ I'm very pleased Eames' book is doing so well. We've yet to have his book come to America, but word has already gotten here and in the month it's been out, and had spread quickly. _

_ I would be very pleased to handle Mr. Eames' accounts for his books as well as the accounts in the rebuilding of Blue Rivers. I_ _look forward to when it can be made a home for the both of you._

_ Once "The Witching Hour" comes to America, you should have more than enough money to pay for the reconstruction of the estate. _

_ Our mutual friend, A, is feeling your loss. He asks about you each time I see him and I think you should write to him. He worries about you and the children in Mr. Eames' care. _

_ You would be proud of our mutual friend. He has reached an agreement with the unions about hourly wages and conditions. No more 24 hour shift, no more workers under the age of 15 years and the pay is much improved. _

_ He has asked me to relay to you that you are free to come home to New York at any time you wish._

_ I hope you are happy._

_ Your friend,_

_ Mr. Dominic Cobb_

~ Ariadne let out a long sigh as she folded Cobb's letter and tucked it into her dress pocket. She didn't want to think about Arthur just now. Didn't want to feel guilty for running away to be with her lover instead of her inconvenient husband.

She watched Eames as he tried to teach Olivia and Harold how to fly a kite in the warmth of the summer sun. They had taken a day trip to Blue Rivers to see the construction going on. The massive rebuilding after the disaster of the fire.

His book was selling extremely well and Eames decided, rather abruptly, that he wanted to move back into the family home once it was rebuilt.

The soon to be family of five spent the day looking over the new construction. The grand house smelling of new wood as a ladies parlor, new library and conservatory were in the works.

A large portion of the old house was still standing and the servants hall was untouched by the blaze. Blue Rivers had been spared the worst.

The faint construction noises were coming from the manor house as the builders worked and took advantage of the summer sun. Even a mile away, they could still hear the workmen hammering and sawing. Shouting and swearing.

The reclusive writer and his family had walked to the pond to enjoy a picnic and family time after they had inspected the house.

Eames taking to fatherhood, very well in preparations for his new edition.

His book, "The Witching Hour", was a huge success and the mystique of a fire at Blue Rivers, Mr. Eames with his roguish past only served to captivate his audience even more.

Ariadne kept after him. Instead of staying in bed all day making love, a thing he wanted to do, she made him get up and write for five hours a day as though it was a real job.

She made him keep story ideas in notebooks. Made him write and used words he liked. She looked over each page and seriously criticize it. In just a month, they had the bones for the second story put together.

His publisher even advanced him money for the second book which allowed them to rebuild the house. Ariadne and Eames were now flushed with cash.

She breathed in the summer air and tried not to wince at the baby kicking rather aggressively inside her.

'I just know you're a boy, you wicked thing.' she thought lovingly as she ran a hand over her large belly.

As if sensing her thoughts, Eames joined her on the picnic blanket as they watched Harold and Olivia play.

"Feeling alight?" he asked.

"Fine." she sighed and tried to put on a brave face.

"We can get a room at the inn. It was a lot to deal with today, the trip and being outdoors." he told her as he placed his hand over her swollen belly.

"I am tired." she admitted.

"You look worn out." he teased.

"I _look_ adorable." she corrected him sternly.

"Yes, of course you do, dear." he laughed and kissed her.

"Olivia!" Ariadne called out to her daughter as she ran away from Harold and to her mother. A classic pout coming on her face because her older brother could fly the kite better than she could.

"Mamma!" Olivia shouted and tried to climb into her mother's lap.

"Olivia, you have to learn how to hold the baby." Ariadne told her daughter.

"NO!" Olivia shouted at the both of them.

"Come now, Livie. Must do what mummy says." Eames wheedled.

Ariadne pulled out a very life like china doll that looked like a sleeping baby from her bag.

"Look, Olivia. We have to be careful when we hold baby." she said and held the baby doll gently as though it were real. "You're going to be my helper with the new baby, and you have to hold him gently." she said and transferred the doll to Olivia.

The child stared at the doll and looked to her mother.

"You can rock him, like I showed you." Ariadne said.

Olivia looked doubtful, but carried the doll away.

"Think Olivia will accept the new baby?" Ariadne said worriedly as they watched the little girl hold the doll close and rock it back and fourth.

"She never did accept Harold. Still, she might like a baby more than a step brother who's older." Eames told her.

Ariadne gasped as they watched Olivia toss the doll into the lake and run away.

"That's not a good thing to see." Eames mused dryly as Harold bravely fished the baby doll out of the water and brought it back to Ariadne.

"She's going to hate the new baby." Ariadne worried.

"She's Arthur's daughter. She was always meant to hate my offspring. Anyhow, she knows that it's just a doll. She might be mad for the real thing." Eames offered as Harold brought back the baby doll. It's clothing soaking wet and Olivia laughing in the tall grass at what she had done.


	18. Chapter 18

5.

~ Each day felt like a gift.

Days would stretch out as though they had all the time in the world. Eames wrote regularly, saw the prescribed doctor and his health returned.

He still walked with help from his cane and still bore a scare to his face, but his natural good looks came back to him easily.

His book did even better in America and money was at the ready to complete Blue Rivers, and assure the financial future of the family.

Phillipa came home from school for summer holidays a beautiful teenager. Ariadne had not realized that so many years had already passed since _Titanic_ sank and she and Arthur had first met her.

~ Then, one day not long after their picnic, Ariadne felt labor pains and gave birth at home with Maura's help.

~ "Are you angry it's another girl?" Ariadne asked as Eames looked over his daughter's face. "I know you wanted to name him after some silly English sea captain if it was a boy."

"No, I'm not upset." Eames said looking over the baby as if she were his only treasure. He seemed enraptured by her face just as Ariadne had been so taken with Olivia.

"Not upset at all. Look at her little finger nails." he told her as the new baby curled a hand around his pinky. "Isn't she marvelous?"

"Well, you've hardly let me see her, dear. I scarcely know _what_ she is." Ariadne teased as she was able to chance a glance at her daughter.

"She looks like Olivia did." she decided.

"I want to call her Felicity." Eames announced.

"Felicity Eames?" the mother said with a smile as the sunlight in the bedroom caught the sparkle of her diamond wedding ring.

"Oh, she's perfect." Eames decided. "I think she even has my lips."

Ariadne peered over at the baby her husband refused to let go of. Felicity looked like Eames, the lucky thing.

She held back a smile as Eames kissed his daughter on the lips and the new born stirred.

"Darling, are you going to be here kissing pretty girls all day, or are you going to go back to work?" she asked rolling her eyes.

"I'm going to stay here, kissing pretty girls all day." her friend turned husband told her.

~ "We must locate mother." Eames announced a few months after Felicity was born and stole her father's heart. "She has to know she's a grandmother."

"Darling, your second book is doing well and the papers announced your daughter's birth in the society pages." Ariadne said.

"They announced the child of the late Fredrick Hays in the papers." Eames grumbled as he held Felicity in his arms and ignored his typewriter.

"Well, there is nothing that can be done about that." Ariadne sighed. "You've legally adopted her and Harold. That's the end of the matter as far as we need be concerned."

"Why is the adoption still so slow for Olivia?" Eames questioned. "I mean, Arthur is dead just as Fredrick is. It's important that Olivia have the same last name as her siblings. She's still Olivia Bradford."

"I'll write to Cobb in America again." Ariadne told him.

"I'll hire an agent here. No need to have Cobb involved for an adoption." Eames told her.

"No, I'll handle this, Eames. Just keep writing. You're publisher expects the drafts on his table by next month." Ariadne told him as she took the baby from him so he could get back to work.

**~ Ariadne.**

** I will never relinquish custody of my daughter to Mr. Eames for adoption.**

** I am convinced you will see reason soon enough and come home. **

** If not, I will come to England myself to ensure you and my child are safe.**

** Arthur**

~ For a long time, Ariadne worried Arthur might come to England, but he never did. There was always some sort of problem in on of his many factories that kept him away. He would telegram her and write to her once a month. She sent him pictures of Olivia and gently asked he stay away as they now had a new family and Olivia would become confused.

Harold didn't forget Arthur right away. When he talked of the man who would teach him business in America, Eames naturally assumed he meant Cobb.

It seemed always a delicate balance to keep Arthur away, Eames in the dark and this on top of moving back to Blue Rivers.

The house was now a modern beauty. While it was in repair, several modern additions were added and electricity was finally put into every room.

Eames' third book sold very well and as the years rolled by, he produced two more in the series.

Olivia did accept Felicity, although Harold proved to be a doting brother as well and Ariadne was grateful he was there.

Life went on, children grew, things became boring and wonderful at Blue Rivers, with Phillipa visiting on summer holidays, talking about the season and most of the servants returning to the house.

_~ Winter of 1919 ~_

~ Ariadne was feeling worn out lately and knew she was coming down with a cold.

"Mine! Mine!" Felicity cried in her two year old's voice as she ran around the bedroom. Her dark curls come loose and her her hair flying over her face as Olivia gave chase.

"Girls, remember you are ladies of a great house." Ariadne said as she had to sit down, the room starting to spin.

"NO!" Felicity shouted.

"Mama, are you alright?" Olivia asked with her well combed hair and immaculate dress, even for a six year old.

"Fine dear. Take your sister to the nursery, I might have a nap." Ariadne said and smiled at her two pretty daughters. The oldest, Arthur's child by right if not by birth. Olivia looked so much like him it was shocking. Her oldest had her own large eyes, but her face reflected a strange sadness she remembered in Arthur. She didn't miss her convenient husband as much when she saw Olivia.

Felicity was the heathen child of her lover and third husband, Eames. Her face, while still lovely, was his completely. The only thing Ariadne was able to add was her dark hair.

"Come along, Fel." Olivia coaxed as she pulled her spoiled younger sister out.

"Papa!" Felicity cried as Olivia pulled her out of the room so Ariadne could rest. "PAPA!"

"Papa is working, goose. We're not allowed to disturb him while he's writing." Olivia said.

Ariadne's head was spinning as she undressed and climbed into bed.

She remembered sleeping too long. Remembered Maura coming in to check on her.

"Missus? Oh dear, Missus. You're burning hot." the maid said.

Ariadne's throat was parched and she tried to ask for water.

She went back to sleep quickly and woke to her lover shaking her.

"Ariadne? Ariadne!" Eames was shouting.

"Eames? We can't... Arthur will find out." she whispered groggily as she could feel Maura applying a damp cloth to her face.

"Darling, Arthur is dead. You're my wife now." Eames said roughly.

"Arthur... Arthur isn't dead... he's in New York... he's coming back." Ariadne gasped in her delirium.

"Go have the driver get the doctor. NOW! Eames shouted at another figure in the room.

Ariadne could hear talking in the room as she kept asking for water. Her face sweating as she picked out Eames' voice.

"Eames!" she cried out. "That woman, Mrs. Abbot! She tired to kill me!"

"Darling, it's alright you're safe now. Just rest." Eames was saying as she wondered where the large scare on his face had come from.

"Tell Arthur. I want Arthur!" she cried like a child would.

Eames looked taken aback as he held her hand.

"Just rest, dear. You'll see him soon." he said at last.

~ Eames hardly knew what to do when Maura came to tell him his beloved wife was very ill. He arrived at her bed to see her breathing heavily and talking nonsense. Remembering things from her past as she fought to breath.

"Mother... I'm sorry! Please..." she would cry out. "Jeffery, Jeffery... how could you?"

That was nothing compared to the demands for Arthur. She cried for her first husband all day and all night. She wanted Olivia, convinced she had just given birth to the now six year old child. She wanted her own mother. She wanted Maura, she wanted water. Above all these things, she wanted Arthur.

She never cried out for Eames as she breathed her last breath. She would see him, acknowledge him, but didn't need him like she needed Maura, water and Arthur.

"Please, Arthur. Where is he? The ship... the ship sank... he's still alive... Arthur..." she gasped as her body was wet with sweat.

"Spanish Flu." the doctor had said after he examined her. "There is nothing can be done. It's killed many. She may live, she may not. I'm very sorry."

"She can't _die_." Eames said in shock. "She's a mother. She's a mother to young children, she can't die."

"I afraid she will, sir." the doctor said as Ariadne started to breath more heavily.

"Arthur!" she moaned.

"Ariadne, you're going to be fine." Eames said to his wife. But his beloved was too far away to hear him. To entrenched in her illness to understand.

~ Eames had kept the children away as their mother lay dieing. Only Maura was allowed to care for the invalid. He even gave serious thought to sending the children away to London, but the flu was there as well.

He rejected the whole notion that a young woman like Ariadne would die. She was a mother with children who needed her. He needed her. People, beautiful wives and mothers who are needed, are not supposed to die. Women like Ariadne are like Aunt Percy, they live forever and are useful until a ripe old age.

It was with great shock to him then when Maura came out of the master bedroom and told him Ariadne, his great love, his muse, his tormenter, his wife, the mother of his child, was gone.


	19. Chapter 19

_~ Part XII ~_

_~ The Bitter Seed ~_

1.

~ Blue Rivers was still.

Like Miss Havisham from "Great Expectations", Eames ordered all the clocks to be stopped and the shades drawn. The children were cared for in their rooms, but Eames wanted the rest of the house in darkness.

He wanted the world to grieve with him.

"I'll take care of Harold, darling. You can be sure of that." he said to Ariadne as she lay in her black pine box. Flowers perfuming the ladies parlor, and associating it with death.

The carriage would take her to the graveyard to be buried next to Arthur's marker. His name was on her lips as she lay dieing. It seemed only fair she should be next to him for all eternity. Even though his wretched body was never recovered from the sea.

Eames burned with jealousy over the idea she still loved Arthur. That she was only with him because he had died.

He would keep the funereal small. Ariadne's death was so sudden, not even Mr. Cobb could come in time. He was on a steamer to London right now; Eames telegraphed him as soon as Ariadne had passed.

"How could you leave me? Felicity needs you; Olivia and Harold... _I need you_!" Eames accused the body in her box.

Ariadne was dressed in a stiff black dress and wore no jewelery save for her wedding band and star pin Arthur had given her while they were in Paris on their trip to Blue Rivers.

It seemed a fitting combination to bury her in. She looked beautiful, even in death.

"I'm so sorry." Eames sighed at last. "If I had known we had such little time together..."

His hands twitched.

He wanted to drink. Wanted to get drunk and run away. He wanted to go to India or Japan and leave the memories of his life here behind. Leave them behind like they had been only a dream that had become a nightmare.

"Sir?" came Maura's voice. "The coach is ready to take her to the graveyard."

Eames held back tears. It was snowing outside. How could he expect to lower his beloved into the ground? She would be cold there. Felicity was already crying for her mother.

Those children needed Ariadne. They _needed _her!

Eames started to finally weep at the unfairness of it. To be left alone in this world with his children and no mother. Who would keep after him to write now? Who would raise the girls to be proper ladies? He couldn't do it alone. He was drowning in a sea of grief.

He scarcely remembered the service. Felicity and Olivia in tears. Harold trying to be brave, Phillipa, a lovely young woman of fifteen now, likewise upset.

It was all too much.

~ Days went by and the grief over the house didn't loosen like it should have.

For the first time ever, Eames was able to empathize with what Ariadne went through when Arthur died on the _Empress_. The feeling like she was just in the other room. How odd the house was now that she wasn't there. Every day, he thought of something new, something he must try and remember to tell her. It would take him several seconds to remember that his beloved Ariadne, was gone. There was no news he could tell her, no stories he could share with her. Their conservatory, newly restored, was meaningless without her in it.

"Mr. Eames?" Morris said. Interrupting his thoughts.

Eames looked up to see the young, spindly butler waiting by the conservatory doors. The stain glass painstakingly restored to match the ones ruined in the fire.

"Yes, Mr. Morris." Eames asked as he looked back to the blank page. He had not been able to write since Ariadne had fallen ill.

"A Mr. Dominic Cobb and Mr. Arthur Bradford from America are here to see you. I've set them up in the library." Morris said.

"Mr. Cobb and _who_?" Eames questioned.

~ It had been five years since Arthur had laid eyes on Blue Rivers. Despite a tragic fire and it's renovation, very little had changed. The only noticeable improvements was a large oil paining of Ariadne over the library mantle piece. She looked lovely in a stylish blue dress with diamond tiara. Her face elegantly captured by the artist. Arthur looked at the painting for a long time. Convinced his convenient wife would step out of it at any moment.

Still, she wasn't his wife anymore. She had married Eames just before her daughter was born. She had lived with him almost three years before her death. The painting reflected another woman than the one he had known and loved.

"So it's true. You are alive." came an angry voice.

Arthur turned to see his one time rival standing at the door of the library.

"It would seem so." Arthur said coolly as Cobb stood to shake Eames' hand.

"You made Ariadne believe you were dead." Eames accused.

"Ariadne knew I was alive just after she came to New York." Arthur said. "What? She didn't tell you?"

"You faked your death? Do you know how much she grieved for you?" Eames asked as Cobb tried to say something to cool the tension.

"I think you helped her to get over me." Arthur said slyly.

"Gentlemen, let's not do this now. Ariadne has recently passed and talking over these things won't help... with things that have to be done now." Cobb said.

"What_ things_?" Eames snarled. "Unless you want to drop dead, I'll be happy to bury you next to your wife. We'll have to change the marker, but it won't be a bother."

"I'm here to take my daughter back to America." Arthur said. His voice calm and in control.

Eames didn't bother to hide the outrage in his voice.

"The hell you will." he hissed. "You abandoned your wife and child. You left them penniless and alone. You have no rights to that child now. Ariadne wanted me to adopt her, the paper work was delayed that is all."

"The paper work?" Arthur scoffed. "There never was any paper work because I refused to release my paternal rights. I wanted Ariadne and Olivia home. Harold as well. I always knew this would happen if she ran off to be with you. I warned her she would have more heart ache with you than she could bare and now_ look_!" Arthur pointed at the oil painting of the woman they both loved. "She's dead. You didn't take care of her and she's dead. I won't allow my daughter to be raised by a drunk. I want her things packed this moment and she's coming back to America with me."

"I loved Ariadne. I took care of Olivia as if she were my own. She calls me papa, not you. Ariadne clearly left you to be with me. Never forget that Arthur. Olivia may be yours on paper, but paper is all you have. She will never be your blood. Ariadne gave birth to _my _child. We have a child who is _our_ blood, and you will never have that." Eames said back. His voice low and bitter.

"The only reason Ariadne was ever with you is because I failed to come back home to her. We both know she felt obligated to take care you of you. She wasted her life tending to you and your selfish needs, Eames. Flattering your ego as a writer. You were just lucky to be successful at it, otherwise, you would have been forced to live in real poverty." Arthur told him.

"You won't have Olivia. Ariadne wouldn't have wanted it. She left you for a reason." Eames said.

"Shall we get the constable involved?" Arthur threatened.

"Eames, we have a court order to take Olivia." Cobb said softly.

~ "Sir?" came a small voice in the library as Eames left in a rage.

"Maura." Arthur said as he tried to calm himself down. "It's good to see you, I have to ask you something."

"Yes, sir." Maura said and gave a curtsey.

"I have been made to understand that you were with Ariadne when she died. I'm grateful she had someone who was able to care for her and not that brute." Arthur said.

"Oh Mr. Eames is a good husband to her. _Was _a good husband, sir." Maura told them.

"Maura, I want you to come back to America with me. You've been there for Olivia since before she was born, and I'd like you to be there for her as long as you are able." Arthur offered.

"Very kind of you, sir." Maura said. "But Olivia is a child of six now and she's always been independent. Felicity, she's just a young thing and needs more attention."

"Felicity. Eames' daughter." Arthur grumbled. "Felicity is staying here with her father."

"Sir, no disrespect, but it's not right to separate sisters like you're doing. The missus wouldn't like it, none." Maura told him.

Arthur sat back a little.

"Sir, Olivia only knows this house, and Mr. Eames. He's a good man and father to the children." Maura proclaimed.

"Maura, I'm sure he was a very good father, when Ariadne was alive to keep him in line. But she's not here and he will start drinking again. What he does to his own child is his concern, but Olivia is mine. I've attempted to gain custody of Harold as well, but the adoption was final. I don't believe any child should be subjected to Mr. Eames now that he has no one to keep him in order." Arthur told her.

"Which is why I should stay and help him with Felicity. She's only two and missing her mother. She needs me more than Olivia, but they are sisters, sir. It's a crime to separate sisters." the maid cried.

"Maura, I'm sorry you feel that way." Arthur sighed. "But Olivia is mine. She is my child and she is coming home with me."


	20. Chapter 20

2.

~ "Olivia, do you know who I am?" Arthur asked the prim little girl in a powder blue coat.

Olivia stared back at him with sad brown eyes. She looked older than a six year old. Like a grown woman in miniature.

"Yes, I have a photograph of you." Olivia said in a smart English accent.

"Yes." Arthur smiled and held out his hand to the child. Remembering how Ariadne made her kiss his picture good night.

"You're my father. Papa is my step father." Olivia said.

"He's not your papa." Arthur said coldly. He sat down in a chair so he could see Ariadne's wonderful little daughter eye to eye. "I'm you papa. You'll be coming to America to live with me. We'll go on a boat and you'll see New York."

"I don't suppose it will do any good at all to tell you I don't want to go." Olivia said sharply.

"You're just a child, and with your mother dead, you have to live with me." Arthur said sternly.

"I don't know you." she told him. "It would be my preference to live here."

"When you are eighteen and can do as you please, you may return to this house." Arthur said.

A flash of defiance came over Olivia's small face.

_'Ariadne._' he thought and the pain in his chest loosened.

"Olivia, I loved your mother very much. We wanted to raise you here as a family, but things happened." Arthur explained.

"What things?" Olivia asked.

"Just things." Arthur told her.

"I won't know anyone in New York. Why can't Fel and Harold come with us?" Olvia asked.

"I thought you didn't like Harold." Arthur asked.

"He is scarcely tolerable, sir." Olivia said smartly and Arthur started to laugh.

"Olivia, we must train this old woman out of you." he said as he didn't miss Ariadne so much anymore.

"Papa calls me an old woman to. But I'm not so very old; I'll be seven in the spring time." Olivia said.

"When you were born, your mother saw your face and you whispered your name to her." Arthur told his daughter.

"How could I speak when I was just a baby?" Olivia asked.

"You had your ways. Your mother understood you and when you told her your name, we listened and named you Olivia." he said and longed to hold his child again.

"Mother never told me that." Olivia said.

"I have lots of stories about your mother to tell you." Arthur said. "One time she ran away from home to see a museum in Paris with only Maura for company."

"Were you cross with her?" Olivia asked suddenly very interested.

"Oh yes, but one can never be too angry with a lady like your mother." Arthur told the child.

"I miss mother." Olivia said.

"I miss her to."

"I shall miss my sister and Harold." Olivia said.

"Well, perhaps, we can visit during the summer." Arthur offered.

"You don't mean that. Adults promise things and never mean it. 'Perhaps' always means no." Olivia said and sulked.

"Well, when I promise you that you will see them again, you will, dearest." Arthur told her.

Olivia nodded.

"Will we have a house in New York?" she asked.

"Yes. A house and horses if you wish." Arthur told her.

"I don't like riding or sporting. I hate getting dirty." Olivia told him.

"I hate getting dirty to. I think you get it from me." Arthur said.

"I'm glad. I was never like mother, although I aspired to be. She was so perfect." Olivia told him.

Arthur smiled. His lovely, imperfect wife would seem wonderful to their daughter.

"Yes." he whispered. "Yes she was."

~ "I suppose it's no good asking you to have a heart. I doubt you even have one." Eames said as Olivia was packed in the car and waved at her younger sister and Harold.

"I have a heart." Arthur told him bitterly. "I gave it to the girl you buried in the church yard."

The two men glared at one another.

"I've promised Olivia she could come and see her sister and Harold over the summer. I plan to keep that promise." Arthur said.

"You mean if I'm not too much of a drunk?" Eames asked.

"Ariadne wrote to me that you were better. But I can't leave my child with you. In a perfect world, I would take Harold and Felicity with me to. I think we both know I'm the better father to them. You could always sign your rights over to me. Then you would be free to do as you pleased." Arthur offered.

Eames glared at his cousin.

"Olivia is welcome over summer holidays, sir. But you are not." he said coldly.

"Very well." Arthur said curtly.

"She died calling for you." Eames said suddenly as Arthur made to leave.

Arthur stopped and looked back at Eames.

"She never called for me. Only called for you, her mother, Maura and water in the end." Eames clarified.

"Please tell me you gave her water." Arthur snapped. "Tell me you didn't let her suffer."

"Maura took care of her." Eames said.

"Yes, as I've suspected she will have to care for Felicity now. You won't be able to. I've instructed her to contact me as soon as you fail the innocent child. Felicity may be your offspring, but I was willing to claim her and Harold as my own once, and I'll do it again. She's still Ariadne's child." Arthur told him.

"Go to hell, Arthur." Eames spat and stormed back into his house.

He had writing to do.

**~ END ~**

**I know. It's hard to end it on this note, but this is where this part ends. I will do another part. One whee the children, including James and Phillipa are grown and return to Blue Rivers. Maybe they find out the truth the adults have kept from them. **


End file.
